Musings:
•The sins of Donald J. Trump (chapter 11). He has:
Removed three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in order to gain control of the agency;
Weakened the guidelines of the National Environmental Protection Act, ignoring climate change and environmental justice, and slashed public participation;
Ordered NASA to draw up plans to shut down two satellites which monitor climate change;
Censored all material in national parks considered to be “negative” history;
Federalized the Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Columbia;
Had his administration authorize the FBI to raid the home and office of John Bolton, former national security advisor, in search of classified security documents;
Signed an executive order authorizing a jail sentence of one year for burning the American flag;
Threatened to prosecute campaign donors who support Democrats;
Attempted to deport hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children to Guatemala;
Threatened to send the National Guard and military troops to large “crime-filled” cities in “blue” states;
Re-named the Department of Defense as the “Department of War” because America is at war with its “enemies”; and
Ordered the bombing of a boat in the Caribbean bound for the United States, allegedly operated by “terrorists” carrying “illegal drugs.”
•Time to re-visit my Wildly Important Goals for Aurora. Nothing has changed since the last report. (Sigh!)
- Two-way street conversion – this project has stalled long enough. The segments of Galena Boulevard and New York Street from Oak Street to Broadway remain untouched. The former segment is part of WIG #2 while the latter segment looks like a speedway. Where is the Department of Streets when we need it?
- On-street parking downtown – I’ll keep harping on this topic until the City Council wakes up to the fact that twenty-first-century traffic on nineteenth-century streets is the reason for so much congestion. We have three parking garages (and many parking lots), all of which are underused.
- Curbs and sidewalks — too many streets in Aurora look like they were laid out as after-thoughts (and perhaps they were). The danger to pedestrians using those unimproved streets – especially after dark – ought to go without saying (but I’m saying anyway). Department of Streets, wherefore art thou?
- City-wide WiFi – once promised, still waiting. WiFi is in downtown Aurora which is well and good, BUT… A debate arose concerning who owned the poles on the outlying streets – AT&T, Com Ed, or the City. The tele-com industry raises its rates but does not provide additional services. Tell me, dear reader, does the expression “eminent domain” ring your chimes? It fills the industry with horror.
- And speaking of utilities, a buy-out of Com Ed should be in order. Aurora once had a public utility – the old Western United Gas and Electric Company at the intersection of Clark Street and the long-lost Stone Avenue – and there is no reason why it can’t have one again. Rates would be lower, due to the elimination of the profit motive. And the polluting Com Ed would be history. Heh-heh-heh.
- Trees (a newbie) – we need more of them on Aurora’s parkways. They would suck up carbon dioxide and cool the City.
•The recent assassination of conservative orator Charlie Kirk and the angry responses which followed have given new life to the debate over the necessity of the death penalty. The MAGA crowd did not hesitate to raise a hue-and-cry over allowing the perpetrator to live one second longer than yesterday. They don’t want justice; justice is for bleeding hearts, don’t you know. They want instead vengeance in the form of a hanging from the nearest tree. Conservatives and liberals alike are blaming each other for Kirk’s death and using similar language in the process Very few are concerned about the repercussions such tactics engender.
In a past life, The Chas was indifferent to the concept of a death penalty. But, when he underwent an apotheosis August 17, 1962, he began to re-think philosophical matters. Eventually, he addressed the matter of the death penalty, i.e. trial by jury vs. trial by mob. He did not see much difference between the two; no one cared about the “how” so long as a form of “justice” was carried out. Consciences were soothed; people could sleep at night, don’t you know?
For the record, The Chas opts for life in prison without parole, with one small addition. The condemned person may be given the choice between a life-time in prison or a cyanide capsule. Either way, the condemned will have made amends for his/her ruthless act. Consciences will have been soothed, and people will be able to sleep at night.
The future of the death penalty has not been addressed here. That is grist for another mill. In the meantime, dear reader, ponder this: has this extreme penalty fulfilled its alleged purpose of ending the crime of murder?
Just a thought.