When I look at a blank page for the first column of the year, it means that everything is possible. It’s upbeat, it’s exciting and anything could happen. Who knows? Trump may turn out to be a great president — just ask him. A long, boring inaugural address might be reduced to just a few well-chosen tweets. Russia may become our dear friend. As I said, everything is possible.
But the limitless possibilities quickly narrow. For example, the bipartisan and reasonably independent House Ethics Committee, which has apparently done its job and stepped on a few congressional toes in the past, was quickly put on the chopping block as the new house’s first order of business. It sailed through the house even though the newly re-elected Speaker Paul Ryan was against it, but quickly collapsed when our president-to-be delivered a decidedly negative tweet. As of now, the bi-partisan House Ethics Committee still exists, independent as ever.
It proves two things: one, that Paul Ryan is going to have a lot of problems trying to corral his house and, two, that no one, including the Republicans, has any idea what Trump will do in any given situation. Apparently that’s just the way Trump likes it, and government by tweet is probably here to stay.
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This year has begun with a little teaser rain and, once again, we’re all hopeful that this may signal that the long drought is over. But nature has played with us before; in fact, about this time last year we got the same teaser rain, which was just that, a tease. There are some hopeful signs. Up north, the lakes, rivers and reservoirs are pretty full and the snow cap is better, so maybe this is the year. We just drove back from Sacramento and, although the north is greener, it still gets browner as you go south.
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When I saw that USC was two touchdowns behind in the Rose Bowl, I sort of figured that it was over — good try, but what the heck. Just found out that I probably missed what everyone says was just about the best Rose Bowl match they had ever seen. It may be true that good defenses win championships, but all the fans want to see a high scoring game. USC turned out to be an incredibly gutsy and scrappy team and their coach was doing something right. Sadly, I can’t say the same about the LA Rams, who had a terrible season. Owner Stan Kronke did what owners generally do after a terrible season — they fire the coach. I think Kronke was wrong. He should have kept the coach and fired the team.
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It looks like Malibu is on the path to become a sanctuary city, which if you read the story in today’s Malibu Times is really more than just symbolic. If the new administration really starts pushing to kick out the undocumented, meaning that it wants all of the local police to check everyone’s immigration status, this could turn into open warfare. California will probably resist, but a lot of states would be happy to comply. What are they going to do? Give you a parking ticket and then ask for proof your citizenship or legal residence. Are we going to have to carry around a copy of our birth certificates? Suppose you don’t have one with you, what then? Are they going to arrest you and hold you in custody until you can prove you’re legal?
Some people are going to say this is really far fetched. It’s not going to affect us. Really! How do we know that you’re not an illegal Canadian? The reality is, however, that in most places it’s going to impact Hispanics most of all. We saw what happened in Phoenix with their very racist sheriff whom they finally kicked out of office. He ordered sweeps through Hispanic neighborhoods. Raids on businesses. Families split up. American-born children left without parents because the parents were deported. People afraid to report crimes for fear they would be arrested. Rape and child molestation cases they ignored while they went after the undocumented.
Are they also going to go after the “Dreamers,” kids bought here as young children, who have gone on to get an education? This is not a pretty story and could get a lot worse if they really move aggressively.
As I predicted: It’s shaping up to be an interesting year.