I’m Just Saying: Trump, Putin, and a Cup of Coffee

With so much going on this week, I have decided to channel the style of the late Larry King for this week's column. Bullet points are coming fast and furious - and running the gamut! 

Ready...aim... 

President Trump's new "Gold Card" initiative could qualify as one of the smartest and best ideas any American president has put forward in decades. It is not, however, an original idea. Pay-to-play visa/citizenship requirements are in place all over the world. Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have similar programs that are spectacularly successful. Shame on Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, and so on for not seeking a similar program decades ago. I guess we can throw Trump 45 on that list as well.  

For my friends that dismiss this notion as being, and I quote, "too simple to have been overlooked", I need to remind you that the commonsense concept of putting locks on cockpit doors was overlooked until 9/11 happened. Now there is not a passenger jet in the sky that doesn't have a secure cockpit. 

Don't look now, but we are about to have a peace deal on the table for Russia and Ukraine. As much as many of us would love to see Russia's bully-in-chief Vladimir Putin either behind bars or under a coffin lid, nothing short of nuclear war is going to make that happen. So, take what you can get, and if you can park an American rare minerals mining operation right along the border, all the better. Genius, actually. America and her allies are in desperate need of Ukraine's rare mineral deposits, and by establishing a large industrial presence there to mine them, Russia is effectively locked out.  

It is not a perfect end to the Putin thuggery that has cost countless lives and trillions of dollars, but it is an end none the less. President Biden had three years to end the Russian campaign, and neither he nor the majority of the European leaders most threatened by Putin's illegal actions were able to stop him. One month into Trump's new term and here we sit. Kinda tough to complain about this deal, but plenty will give it their best shot. 

Nothing like an outrageous threat to get action going like never before. President Trump's bizarre plan to turn the Gaza Strip into some sort of American-controlled "Riviera of the Middle East" seems to have inspired a renewed spirit of camaraderie and charity among the nations of that region. Out of nowhere, we saw leaders of at least seven Middle Eastern countries gather in Riyadh to plan a future for Gaza's displaced Palestinians and future development for that troubled part of the world. The hatred of Hamas is not represented in the plans being discussed and nowhere is there even a hint of anti-Israel threats or violence. The heads of state in those countries understand that the terrorists who fooled around and found out in the October 7 attack on Israel incurred a wrath that few predicted would occur. They want no more of it. Solutions being considered at this point are in the hands of Arab leaders who should have stepped up decades ago. Better late than never. Once again, we are closer to closure of this tragic chapter in the complicated history of the Middle East than we were under the previous American administration. 

It’s a horrific tragedy in Burke County this week as authorities continue to seek answers in the death of Telvin Osborne. The 30-year-old father of two was killed during a domestic dispute with Hannah Cobb, the mother of his children. While investigators were working diligently with a hysterical suspect (Cobb), family members of the deceased were posting inaccurate and inflammatory accusations, quoting Cobb saying things that she in fact never said. While the blame for the inaccurate statement lies squarely on the individual who made it, we in the media need to be much more careful about quoting clearly emotional loved ones who may not have all the facts on hand.  

Sadly, some horrifically uninformed gadflies were more than happy to jump in and assign a racial component to the way the white suspect (Cobb) was being handled in the death of a Black victim (Osborne). I’m not sure how the Black sheriff and Black district attorney who make decisions in these kinds of situations can credibly be accused of anti-Black racism. Hey, ignorant commentary is never in short supply on social media these days. Take what you see and hear among grieving loved ones and aggrieved neighbors with a grain of salt during times of such sadness and loss. Emotions and tempers are all over the place, Common sense and decency, not so much. 

Regular listeners to my award-winning radio show know that Austin Pet Peeve #1 for easily fixed local/regional problems is our underfunded and understaffed Georgia State Crime Lab. No doubt you have seen the recent headlines involving murder charges in the case of nursing home resident Marcia Foster. Authorities say her daughter, former local writer Rachel Waters, injected her mother with a lethal dose of morphine, a drug she had not been prescribed. There were suspicions of foul play when the lady died, and as you can imagine, an autopsy was ordered. In the meantime, Miss Waters cashed out her mom’s substantial estate. I am told it totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whatever she did next, I am not exactly sure, but she sure had a good little while to do it. Over a year, in fact. 

The toxicology report that proved Marcia Foster died from poisoning, and that she was in fact a murder victim, took 13 months to come back from the crime lab. That’s approximately 56 weeks - 390 days. All for a test that takes 60 seconds to perform once a blood sample is in hand.  

What is it going to take to fix the Georgia Crime Lab? That’s not an actual question. I know - proper funding and proper staffing. Pay people what they are worth and get the job done! Georgia Republicans, this is all on you. Fix the Crime Lab. 

A few years ago, we saw a ridiculous meltdown of decorum, not to mention a highly unethical flouting of the rules, when a faction of young progressives attempted a by-the-book takeover of the Richmond County Democrat Party during a routine gathering to pick leaders and conduct business. Rather than admit that the young guns - under the leadership of the late Joey Tranna and his friend Jerod Gay - had shown up in numbers and beaten them with their own rulebook, old school leaders Dr. Lowell Greenbaum, Terrance Dicks (both now also deceased), and a few others erroneously (and they claimed intentionally) ruled them "out of order", thwarting the well-planned and legitimate overturning of the local party organization. The OG leadership made complete fools out of themselves, and alienated dozens of potential young leaders in the process. I thought that episode represented a low point for local political party shenanigans, but the Columbia County Republican Party is giving them a run for their money with an equally bizarre show of arrogance and corruption. You may be familiar with the details - an alleged criminal assault on one party member by another, during the party meeting, immortalized by security camera footage. That footage, as well as the mugshot of Linda Parnell, charged with battery after throwing coffee all over former County Commissioner Dewey Galeas, has gone viral. The fact that as of this writing - five days post attack and arrest - there has been no official action to suspend or expel Parnell from the local group is asinine. If the gutless local party Chairman Joe Edlemon doesn't act, Galeas needs to appeal to State Party Chairman Josh McCoon to remove him as well as the arrested Parnell. I have Josh’s phone number if anyone needs it.  

Tell him Austin says hello.