- Thursday January 9th, 2025
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
N.Y.'s Top Appeals Court Won't Block Trump Sentencing
New York's highest court declined to block President-elect Donald
Trump's upcoming sentencing in his felony case involving falsification
of business records Thursday, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as Trump's
likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday.
One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump's legal team.
Trump has asked the Supreme Court to call off Friday's sentencing in
the felony case. His lawyers turned to the nation's highest court on
Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by
Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial and conviction
last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has
denied wrongdoing.
Biden to block all future oil drilling in parts of US oceans
President Joe Biden on Tuesday is set to designate two new monuments
and, in doing so, establish the largest tract of protected land in the
continental United States by expanding a corridor out West, the White
House said.
But his planned remarks from Thermal, California, on Tuesday afternoon
announcing the designation of the two new monuments were scrapped
because of "weather issues," according to the White House, amid a
"life-threatening" windstorm in California with fire risks. They are
being rescheduled for next week at the White House.
The proclamations Biden plans to sign would create the Chuckwalla and
Sáttítla Highlands National Monuments, with the first in southern
California and the latter in the northern mountainous part of the state.
The two new monuments total nearly 850,000 acres, according to the administration.
LA Engulfed by 'the Big One': At Least 5 Dead in Spreading Wildfires
The Hollywood Hills blazed uncontrollably Thursday morning as the worst
wildfires in the history of Los Angeles raged across the city and deep
into the storied heartland of the American film industry.
A crescent of flame squeezed Los Angeles in a huge pincer visible from
space. More than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate as dry,
hurricane-force winds hindered firefighting operations and spread the
flames. At least five people have been killed since the fires erupted
Tuesday.
The homes of movie stars and celebrities were among those consumed by
flames, which tore through some of the world's most lavish real estate
and above showbiz landmarks instantly recognizable around the world.
Trump's Inaugural Committee Has Raised a Record $170M
President-elect Donald Trump has raised more than $170 million for his
upcoming inauguration, a record amount as tech executives and big
donors have eagerly written large checks to help bankroll the ceremony.
The private donations collected thus far were confirmed by a person
with firsthand knowledge of the fundraising who was not authorized to
speak publicly. The person said Trump's inaugural committee is expected
to raise more than $200 million by the end of the effort.
Trump's inaugural committee did not immediately respond to a message
seeking comment Wednesday. The committee has not yet detailed how it
plans to spend the donations.
Ukrainian artillery troops scored another win against Russia
Ukrainian artillery soldiers working in cooperation with reconnaissance
drone operators on the eastern frontlines in Donetsk destroyed a
powerful Russian air defense system.
The Ukrainian 15th Separate Artillery Reconnaissance ‘Black Forest’
Brigade destroyed a Russian Pantsir-S1. However, it didn’t happen
recently according to reports.
Released by the brigade on its Facebook page, the Ukrainian military
news website Militarnyi reported it appeared the operation probably
occurred in the summer of 2024 despite being published on December
31st.
Notable moments as Trump sits with Obama, greets Pence at Carter funeral
President-elect Donald Trump shook hands with his former Vice President
Mike Pence and spoke extensively with former President Barack Obama
during the state funeral for late President Jimmy Carter on Thursday.
All five living U.S. presidents attended Carter’s service at Washington
National Cathedral. Carter, the nation's 39th president, died in late
December at the age of 100.
Trump was the first of the presidents to arrive and sit in the second row, joined by his wife Melania Trump.
Judge Juan Merchan’s vendetta against Donald Trump has reached Captain Ahab-level madness
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is abusing his power one
last time in a bid to ensure that Donald Trump is technically a
convicted felon when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20.
Yes: The term “convicted felon” doesn’t legally apply until you’ve been
sentenced, which is also a requirement for nearly all appeals of a
conviction — and Merchan’s many errors over the course of the trial are
all too likely to result in Trump’s conviction being reversed.
So the judge has been dragging things out so that he can sentence Trump
on Friday, barely a week before the inauguration and with insufficient
time to win that reversal.
Merchan on Monday refused to postpone sentencing; a higher state judge
has declined to overrule him; Trump’s asked the US Supreme Court to
intervene and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s weighing in
Thursday morning on why SCOTUS shouldn’t.
Yes, US generals should be fired
In October 1939, just one month after he took over as Army Chief of
Staff, General George C. Marshall famously winnowed the ranks of
hidebound senior officers to prepare for war. “Most of them have their
minds set in outmoded patterns,” Marshall told his leadership team,
“and can’t change to meet the new conditions they may face if we become
involved in the war that started in Europe.”
Every democracy since a defeated Athens has pruned its senior leaders
proven inadequate to the demands of their respective era – often more
painful than mere public shame. Ours may be the only era when an entire
general and admiralty class — more than 80% of which gain employment in
the defense sector after retirement — has been consistently rewarded
with lucre and prestige for losing.
With two failed wars and scores of weapons acquisition fiascoes now
secured in history’s dustbin, many may fear that virtue itself has been
swept from the floor. Mainstream deference to “self-serving delusion”
has sustained an unearned and stunting faith in a senior leadership
selection system made hollow by long-past assumptions.
Therefore, Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth’s impassioned
plea to focus upon the people who serve and his condemnation of a
self-perpetuating, class-creating leadership system may, if we can look
past the vitriol of our day, herald our very own Marshall moment to
deter war rather than to fight one.
