There’s quite a bit of chatter about CNN’s decision to host a town hall featuring lying, criminal, sexual predator Donald Trump. The bit that seems to chafe is that they ALSO packed the audience with Trump-adoring bootlickers, the kind of people who LIVE to adore the Former guy. I, for one, am a-okay with hosting a town hall for an “opposition” candidate, though I ALSO hold that news agencies shouldn’t be so biased as to have “opposition” candidates. If the outlet is journalistically neutral, Trump should just be a candidate.

Packing the audience with sycophants, though? Not a good look. There was a time when I considered CNN a solid news outlet. No longer. It wasn’t the town hall, though. They’ve been getting weirder and weirder over there for quite some time. For a long time, every time a truck backed up they broke out their “BREAKING NEWS!” banner, making it seem like something was happening when nothing was happening. Scary sensationalism is a lying Fox Not News thing. It doesn’t belong on CNN.

So, I don’t know what they’re trying to do but I know what they’re NOT trying to do: provide solid, objective news. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I’m going to stay away from CNN going forward. That’s the problem with selling one’s integrity. It sells pretty easily but once it’s gone, it is difficult to impossible to get back.

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The Antioch police department is all roiled in a scandal in which the cops on the beat have been caught exchanging racist texts. Right now, investigations are under way and some of the cops are sidelined. Meanwhile, every lawyer of a convict imprisoned because of testimony from one of these cops is searching through the transcripts looking for ANY sign of racism in the trial.

Some guilty people may well go free because some cop couldn’t keep his lesser angels under control and that’s a concern but a bigger concern to me? I wonder how many actually innocent people might be sitting in jail under false pretenses because of these racist cops. The “crime” of being a darker shade of brown than the majority can be very dangerous in this once-great nation…

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California is wrestling with the question of reparations to descendants of slaves. The current proposal is for affected people to receive checks of up to $5 million dollars. Maybe that will quiet the crowd. Certainly it will salve the consciences of some. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea. THAT payment, not the reparations.

I confess, I used to have a bit of a smug attitude about reparations. I thought, sure, let’s give something to anybody still alive who experienced slavery, fully aware that if there ARE any people still alive who experienced slavery, there are precious few of them. Turns out? I was a dolt on the matter. I got on board with the idea after watching this woman, Amber Ruffin, make the case that reparations are due for more than just slavery in her video ‘Reparations are due for more than just slavery: the Amber Ruffin show.‘ That’s a link. You should click it and give it a watch. Six minutes of your life and she’ll address any questions you might have on the topic. Oh, and she’s funny…

Still, I don’t like the idea of just handing people a wad of cash. People who struggle to make ends meet are very good at stretching a dollar over two weeks but they’re crap at managing millions of dollars. How could they not be? When have they had the chance? It’s a weird reality of people who win the lottery that many of them blow through their winnings and end up just as broke as before, often worse off. The problem is not an inherent failure. It’s lack of skill, the direct result of lack of experience.

Simply handing over $5 million dollars is nothing more than a short term band-aid. It won’t put people back on path to “generational wealth.” It will give the economy a short term boost as people blow through their windfall and then leave them back where they started – but with a nicer television.

I’ll tell you this: It’s a tricky question. How does one make up for decades, no, generations of oppression and denial? America was supposed to be the land of opportunity but we’ve had entire classes of people denied any and every opportunity the society could get away with blocking throughout our history. Stopping that would be a good start…