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Trump and the plundering of his Republican base

You don’t have to be a political pollster to know that Trump is going to lose the election in November. Even his loyal base is growing tired of his incompetence. So what do you do if you’re on team Trump and you know that you are about to lose your job in a few months? You blitz the people who can least afford it with requests for money. Money that Trump and his cronies have found creative ways of funneling directly into their pockets.

Brad Parscale may have lost his position as campaign manager, but he’s still pulling the strings in the digital marketing landscape. Just this past July Trump pulled in 165 million dollars in campaign contributions. They have been bombarding donor’s with around the clock requests for money. They do this through a steady stream of text messages and emails.

I know this because I am a recipient of this bombardment. How did I get to be so lucky? Trump, with his narcissistic impulses, is constantly sending out nonsensical polls. These polls most often allow the recipient to add comments to their responses. That’s where the fun is. I get to say over and over that Trump is an idiot directly to the people working for him. I usually add comments about how they’re going down with the ship. Every poll ends with a submit button that then takes you to a screen asking for a donation.

Yesterday I received a text message offering me a signed copy of Sean Hannity’s new book. So much for fair and balanced. I haven’t given Trump a penny, yet I am one of his top supporters, if you are to believe the emails I receive on a daily basis.

Besides hawking Hannity’s book, the contents of the text messages and emails are truly bizarre. Trump aced his cognitive test, so why won’t Biden take it? Take a short poll now! Here are a few other crazy themes: Sleepy Joe is locked in his basement afraid to face the press; a request to become a Trump Team Leader; get a signed MAGA hat, a chance to get on Trump’s Donor Hall of Fame.

Even Brad Parscale knows that he might be going a little overboard with his requests for money, so he enlists the help of other Trump cult figures to make requests on Trump’s behalf: Eric Trump, Trump Jr., Lara Trump, Newt Gingrich, Bill Stepien, Mike Pence, America First Action, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and last but not least the official Trump campaign store.

So how is this going to end? I can guarantee you that once Trump is out of office the requests for money will not stop. The next money request theme will be helping Trump stay out of prison.

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Review of the HBO docuseries I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

Rating ****

Joseph DeAngelo in a police sketch and a picture taken around the time of his early crimes

How to make a serial killer – that about sums up this intriguing six-part documentary series on HBO. The series centers around author Michelle McNamara’s writing and eventual publication of the book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, which is about a serial rapist and murderer nicknamed the Golden State Killer.

Michelle died prematurely while working on the book. The cause of death was due to a lethal combination of prescription and over-the-counter medications. The film hints at the possibility that the book’s subject matter and the stress of publication deadlines may have contributed to her use of the drugs. As with the book, her husband, actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, fills in for his wife and sees that her work finds an audience.

I knew from headlines that investigators eventually caught the Golden State Killer and that it occurred after the book’s publication. I didn’t know that Michelle’s work played a role in that outcome.

Throughout this six-episode series, viewers learn how this individual progressed from breaking and entering to rape to murder. The mystery is who is this person, and what motivated him to commit these despicable crimes?

The final episode unravels the mystery. It goes without question that it takes a psychopathic mind to commit these types of crimes. But there are plenty of psychopaths wandering around causing mischief who don’t commit violent crimes. What flicked the switch with this guy?

The filmmakers don’t draw a definitive conclusion, but it seemed obvious to me. The man, Joeseph DeAngelo, was a former police officer. He lost his job after getting caught shoplifting. He also had a strong dislike for women, most likely the result of the breakup of an early relationship. My theory is that the combination of those two events, combined with a troubled childhood, set him on a course of revenge. His goal, in my mind, was to show that he was smarter than the police and women who ruined his life.

In the end, it’s the survivors who get the last word. Their stories are what’s important. The man behind those crimes will now spend his remaining years in a tiny cell with the memories of his victims haunting him night after night.

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Review of Showtime’s docuseries Outcry

Review of Outcry directed by Pat Kondelis Rating *****

When it comes to wrongful convictions, all it takes is the breakdown of just one step in the criminal justice system. A detective looking to close a case can coerce a false confession. A prosecutor can bring charges that the evidence doesn’t support. A jury can send a person to prison for twenty-five years without blinking an eye just because they would rather go home than debate the facts. The story told in Outcry touches on all of these themes and more.

It all starts with an accusation. A four-year-old boy accuses a teenager, Greg Kelley, of sexual assault. Greg is a high school football star with a full college scholarship awaiting his graduation. What follows is one misstep after another as Greg is soon arrested and put through the spin cycle of our broken criminal justice system.

The detective assigned the case doesn’t interview a single person in the household where the alleged assault occurred. He doesn’t even go to the house to verify the boy’s statement. The house where Greg was staying also ran an in-home daycare. The daycare owner recommended a lawyer to Greg’s mother, who then hired her to represent Greg. The lawyer, Patricia Cummings, does a less than competent job in defending her client. Since the documentary has aired, Patricia Cummings has gone on the defense and is threatening to sue the filmmakers. My take, based on the facts presented, especially the way she turned on her client when her reputation was on the line, point to ineffective counsel. One of Patricia’s defenders is Michael Morton. Michael Morton spent twenty-plus years in prison for a crime he did not commit. I have a lot of respect for Michael Morton. His book Getting Life is one of the best books ever written about a wrongful conviction. I’m sure he has a good reason to come to her defense. But if Patricia Cummings had done half the job as Greg’s second attorney, Keith Hampton, there would not have been a wrongful conviction.

The missteps by the lawyers, detectives, and prosecutors are not the only glaring failures. The series also touches on issues concerning sentencing disparities, the appeals process, and the inadequacies of our jury system.

I won’t give away the ending. But one of the saddest aspects of this story is that none of the people responsible were held accountable. No one lost their job. Instead, there were promotions and praise. The lead prosecutor, however, committed suicide. It’s not known what role this case had in that sad outcome.

Outcry is an emotional rollercoaster that will stay with you long after the last of this five-episode docuseries.

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Review of What You Have Heard Is True

Review of What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forche Rating *****

Carolyn Forche’s book starts with a visit from a total stranger with a distant family connection. The stranger, Leonel Gomez Vides, invites Carolyn to visit his home country of El Salvador. The reason for the unusual request unfolds throughout the book. It is a journey that encompasses danger, poverty, brutality, oppression, and ultimately war. Along the way, there is a great deal of history.

Leonel’s ultimate goal was to have Carolyn witness firsthand the many atrocities occurring in El Salvador with the hope that she might write about her experiences and educate Americans. This book, in many ways, achieves that goal.

Leonel turns out to be a wise sage. He teaches Carolyn about his country: the past, present and future. He shows her the best the region has to offer as well as the worst. If Leonel had been in a position to run for a free and democratic election, he would have been the type of individual who could have turned it all around.

One of my favorite sayings goes something like this: feed a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Dictators and autocrats have a different mindset. Not only do they not teach a man to fish, they don’t give him the fish either. Instead, they threaten, intimidate, imprison, or murder those who oppose them.

It is a sad commentary that many of the problems described in this book, such as the abject poverty and violence that permeates this story, still exist today. Maybe if the right politician finds this book, he or she will have a better insight on what changes are needed. Handing money over to corrupt governments isn’t the way.

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Review of The Confession Killer

Review of the Netflix documentary series The Confession Killer
Rating *****

This documentary series should be required viewing for every person considering a career as a detective. When it comes to false confessions, this is an example of what not to do.

The majority of false confessions occur through intimidation, deceptive police tactics, outright lies by detectives, sleep deprivation, and other equally disturbing practices. In the case of Henry Lucas, it was the direct opposite. Police showered Henry with praise for his cooperation. They took him out of jail to visit crime scenes. They allowed him to roam free in their offices, where he had an unlimited supply of cigarettes and strawberry milkshakes. The sad part here is not so much that a man confessed to crimes that he did not commit but that so many people willingly accepted those false confessions as the truth.

Throughout the five episodes, you will meet two types of people: competent people and, as one lawyer put it, those who are less than competent.

At the top of the list of incompetent people are several members of the Texas Rangers, specifically Jim Boutwell and Bob Prince. These two presented themselves as crime-solving superstars. Instead, they were the masterminds of one of the greatest hoaxes in history. Even a casual observer who spent a few minutes looking at Henry’s confessions could see that they could not possibly be true. There was evidence that Henry was thousands of miles away at the time of some of his confessed murders. Sheriff Boutwell was quick to point out that Henry gave details of crimes that only the perpetrator could have known. He failed to mention that Henry got most of those details from him.

In one false confession, Henry tells detectives that he saw a couple walking along the highway. Henry claimed to have shot the boy in the back of the head six times. He then drove exactly fifty-five miles, where he raped and killed the girl. Sheriff Boutwell interrupts to point out that it was actually fifty-six miles, as if to indicate that Henry was slightly off in his details. In another case, Henry confesses to a murder and describes a piece of jewelry that he remembered the victim wearing. Family members later found the jewelry at home.

During this period where detectives from all over the nation rushed to Texas to have Henry confess to crimes that he did not commit; the real killers were free to continue killing. Cases were closed that should not have been closed. Detectives informed family members that they had solved the crimes, only for them to learn later that it was all a big lie.

Every minute of this series is jam-packed with compelling stories. There is the story of one family who refused to accept Henry’s confession because they knew that the details that he provided were wrong. Then there is the incredible story of Texas District Attorney Vic Feazell. Vic was new to his position and eager to get publicity for solving three unsolved murders. He was skeptical, however, of Henry’s confessions. The story of what happened when Vic exposed the Texas Rangers’s incompetence is worthy of a stand-alone documentary just on him.

The Confession Killer is documentary storytelling at his best. Do not miss this one.

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Review of Bloodlines

Review of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty written by Melissa del Bosque
Rating *****

This is a story about the good guys getting the bad guys. And when I say bad guys, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill bad guys. I’m talking Breaking Bad, drug cartel bad guys.

Melissa del Bosque’s expose unravels a twisted story of murder, kidnapping, extortion, torture, horse racing, and money laundering. It all starts when the FBI is alerted to an unusually high price paid for a horse at auction. The FBI spends the next three years piecing together how three brothers, two of them high up in the Zetas drug cartel, funneled drug profits into horse racing and breeding.

Miguel Trevino

The author does an excellent job of walking the reader through the intricacies of structured deposits, shell companies, horse racing, and breeding. Some of the proceeds are legitimate. Most of it is not. Miguel Trevino and his brother, Omar, fixed races through doping and intimidation. They also had the advantage of buying up all of the best horses and seeding the field with three or four of the top horses, all but guaranteeing a win.

To make the whole enterprise look legitimate, Miguel and Omar enlisted the help of their brother Jose, who lived a quiet life in San Antonio, working as a bricklayer. In a short time, Jose went from $50,000 a year to making enough money to buy a ranch and start a horse breeding business.

Hot on his trail, though, was a rookie FBI agent named Scott Lawson. Over three years, Scott and a small team of FBI agents and a couple of IRS agents put together a charging document that would ultimately lead to the undoing of the entire scheme. They confiscated all of the cartel’s horses and were successful in getting lengthy prison sentences for Jose Trevino and a cast of co-conspirators. Jose’s brothers, Miguel and Omar Trevino ended up in Mexican prisons.

Miguel, Jose, and Omar Trevino

A convoluted story like this could take years to unravel. The author, however, had the good fortune of having the work of the FBI, along with the thousands of pages of trial transcripts and depositions to draw upon. Add in the author’s research and personal interviews, and you have the making of a compelling nonfiction narrative.