The Republican National Convention — also known as the Republican clown show — began this week in Cleveland.
As you listen to Donald Trump’s supporters explain why they like him, you inevitably hear one phrase over and over: “He tells it like it is.”
Actually, he doesn’t. What he does is tell it like he feels or like he wants it be. And his perceptions rarely coincide with verifiable truth or even plausible possibility.
He nicknamed one of his GOP rivals “Lyin’ Ted,” but even the notoriously dishonest Texas senator is not quite as bad as Trump. The respected website PolitiFact has rated only 11 percent of Trump’s statements “true” or “mostly true,” compared with 22 percent for Ted Cruz. The woman some Republicans refer to as “Hil-liar-y,” by contrast, is accurate 51 percent of the time.
What Trump’s voters are responding to is not his fearless veracity but an incurable willingness to say whatever pops into his head, even if — or especially if — it’s likely to offend someone. He does “tell it like it is” in the sense that he doesn’t let conventions, good manners or discretion inhibit him in the least. But you can be blunt by saying an American-born Hispanic judge is a “Mexican,” for instance and still be wrong in 2016.
Trump’s abrasive candor is one reason some people assume he’s more honest than Clinton. She is obsessively careful when she speaks, which makes her sound calculating and evasive, even when what she says is true.
But anyone who relies on Trump’s words to represent reality is sure to be unpleasantly surprised. A story in the New York Times on his business record concluded that “based on the mountain of court records churned out over the span of Mr. Trump’s career, it is hard to find a project he touched that did not produce allegations of broken promises, blatant lies or outright fraud.”
Broken promises, blatant lies and outright fraud are not failures in his formula for business and politics. They are the formula.
Broken promises, blatant lies and outright fraud are not failures in his formula for business and politics. They are the formula. I will not vote for Trump under any circumstances. I hope you won’t either.
The former Compton school board member who committed an unwanted sex act on a sleeping man in a San Diego hotel room was sentenced last week to six years in prison.
Skyy De’Anthony Fisher, 33, was convicted of the crime in late January, but his sentencing hearing was delayed when he changed lawyers and filed a motion for a new trial.
After hearing more than two hours of testimony July 14, San Diego Superior Court Judge Runston Maino denied that motion and sentenced Fisher to the middle term available under state law.
Fisher could have received a sentence ranging from probation, with little or no additional jail time, up to eight years in prison.
“I can’t grant probation in this type of case,” Judge Maino said after hearing arguments from the attorneys. “I think the victim was [particularly] vulnerable. He was sleeping. He had been drinking. The emotional injury on this victim, I think, has been profound.”
One of the most shocking developments in this case was the strong support Fisher received from local activist Jasmyne Cannick, who went around the entire city lying to elected officials and members of the media proclaiming that Fisher was in a relationship with the student, when she knew better.
I will never forget the day when community residents and activists Arturo Flores, Pastor K.W.Tulloss, Donyetta Hamm, Big Money Griff and several parents were confronted by Cannick as she yelled at them for protesting against Fisher and she kept defending Fisher until the very end. I want to personally commend my fellow activists who always stood up and had the courage to demand justice for the victim and didn’t want someone like Fisher around their children.
According to testimony presented at the January trial, Fisher and the victim had known each other about a year before they made the trip from Los Angeles County to San Diego two years ago. Fisher was described as a mentor to the younger man, who was a college student at the time.
In San Diego, they went to bars with friends in the Gaslamp Quarter before returning to a hotel early the morning of April 5, 2014. The two men shared a room at the Keating Hotel on F Street, but had separate beds.
The victim testified he woke up in bed about 7:30 a.m. and found Fisher performing oral sex on him. Before the man could say anything, Fisher stopped and jumped back onto the other bed and pretended to be asleep. The younger man got angry, gathered his belongings and left the room.
A short time later, the two men had a confrontation outside the hotel, and the victim punched Fisher before driving away and calling 911. Evidence was collected from his body during a sexual assault response team examination later that morning and Fisher’s DNA was found. A jury took less than 45 minutes to return a verdict.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Fox argued during the sentencing hearing that prison was appropriate, given the impact Fisher’s actions had on a young man who had trusted him.
“You were supposed to be a friend, a representative of the city and most of all the youth…,” the man wrote in a letter read aloud in court by the prosecutor. “I have been in prison emotionally and mentally because of your selfish act.”
Upon his release from prison, Fisher will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
For news tips, email BrotherNajeeali@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter@Najeeali.
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