John T. Reed’s news blog

During the primaries, I and others warned the parties that they were playing with convention fire when they tried to use various procedural games to deny Trump and Bernie the nomination. With the Republicans, it was “rules are rules” games where Cruz got the delegates Trump had won in some places. With Bernie, it was a sort of pervasive sense that there was no way he was getting the nomination, even if he somehow won the delegates.In the event, Trump gave Cruz a prime-time speech and seemed genuinely concerned about whether Cruz hated him. Then Cruz more or less unified...

Comey keeps saying he did not find the “necessary intent.” There is no necessary intent. What is necessary is intent OR gross negligence. Comey should be forced to explain what more Hillary needed to do for him to find gross negligence. The lead here is Comey did not recommend prosecution because he, a former prosecutor, and his fellow prosecutors, all by themselves, have decided that gross negligence is not enough. They have placed themselves above the Congress and president and the Constitution and given themselves the power to repeal the words “gross negligence” from the pertinent part of the U.S....

Comey’s logic is that clear violation of a statute is not enough. You must also have prior successful prosecutions under that part of that statute. If congress and a past president say gross negligence is against the law and a felony by enacting a law that says that, it’s not enough. There must also be successful previous prosecutions, or so Comey would have us believe. That begs the question of how a new law would ever get prosecuted. It also begs the question of whether prosecutors now have some sort of prosecutorial-nullification power. That is, they can repeal laws they...

We discussed last week whether the patrons in Pulse Club could have attacked the shooter when he was changing magazines. The debate was about how many seconds it takes to change a magazine.Now we learn he was texting, making phone calls, receiving phone calls—something like 20 minutes on the phone during the incident. Would someone please ask the survivors why they did not attack the guy when he was engaging in activities other than pulling the trigger on one of his weapons? This discussion needs to be widely publicized so future occupants of such rooms will start having something in...

In March, 2016, I got a test that said my bout with prostate cancer was probably over. I had the cancer, got the prostate removed, and got a subsequent PSA test that was less than .1. Over 4.0 is the score that causes urologists to suspect cancer. I have to get that test every three months for two years to make sure no cancer too small to detect survived, but so far so good. I wrote an article about it here to help save the lives of some of my readers. http://www.johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-news-blog/115770435-the-dogs-are-never-wrong-or-how-to-avoid-an-avoidable-cause-of-death ‘Cancer won’t happen to me’ We all tend to...