Happy Friday! Here are the topics that caught my eye for today’s column:
- Botched Execution
- Insurrection Act
- U.S. Senate Adjourns
- Photo From My Travels
- One More Thing
BOTCHED EXECUTION:
Christa Pike, who is 50 years old, was supposed to be executed in Tennessee Wednesday for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
Now Pike is in critical condition and receiving lifesaving care at a local hospital after authorities botched her execution. She was given a double dose of the drug Tennessee uses to execute prisoners. Some reports say the authorities used seven needles during the hour she was supposed to be executed. (AP)
I have no issue with the death penalty in general, but executing someone who committed their crime at 18 gives me pause. It’s especially complicated when you look at her boyfriend, because he was 17; he couldn’t face the death penalty. He got life with a chance at parole, while she remains on death row for a crime they committed together.
Also, Pike spent nearly three decades in functional solitary confinement. As the only woman on Tennessee’s death row for almost her entire incarceration, she was held under maximum-security conditions that severely restricted her human contact. (Source) While male death row inmates in Tennessee were eventually allowed to work, eat, and socialize together, Department of Correction policies kept Pike completely isolated in a cell the size of a parking space. (Source)
Finally, I strongly believe if the state can’t carry out an execution without torturing someone, I think it forfeits the right to try again. Pike has already suffered enough. If she survives this botched execution, they should commute her sentence to life.
INSURRECTION ACT:
We live in dangerous times, but the true threat to our republic comes from within. I am not worried about a foreign military invasion; I am worried about the erosion of our nation from the inside out, driven by the destabilizing actions of President Donald Trump.
Watch for it.
In recent interviews, President Donald Trump has explicitly refused to rule out invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring a national emergency around the upcoming November midterm elections. (Source)
In a Time magazine interview published on October 1, 2026, Trump was asked if he would rule out declaring a state of emergency or taking emergency action in the lead-up to the midterms. He responded, “I don’t rule anything out or in. We’ll see. You mean the Insurrection Act?” He added, “I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes.” (Source)
For historical context, the 1807 Insurrection Act allows a president to deploy active-duty military or federalize the National Guard domestically to suppress civil disorder or enforce federal law. It has been invoked roughly 30 times in U.S. history, most recently in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush during the Los Angeles riots. (Source)
U.S. SENATE ADJOURNS:
In case you missed it, the U.S. Senate adjourned Wednesday night and will return to the Capitol the week of November 9, 2026.
This will allow the Senators to hit the campaign trail and will allow their staffers to take some “personal time” to campaign for candidates all across the fruited plains.
The U.S. House has been adjourned since mid-September.
One side is going to be very unhappy when they return in November. Most people think it will be the Republicans.
PHOTO FROM MY TRAVELS:
We stopped in Oklahoma City a few years ago to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial. (Photo)
It was a very moving memorial that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. A total of 168 people were killed, including many children, and the entire north face of the building was destroyed. (Source)
More information can be found HERE.
ONE MORE THING:
If you know what a pencil has to do with a cassette tape, you’re my people.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##
