Weekly Comments: Trump’s Fast Start. Pardons. Inaugural Balls. Fires Still Burning. And Super Bowl Matchup

“Say, this Trump is a fast worker. Even on a Monday Holiday… this President called Congress in extra session, and that’s not all he is going to call ’em either if they don’t get something done.”

That quote (with a couple of substitutions) was written by Will Rogers right after Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933 (DT #2055, March 6).

We talk about the first 100 days of a presidency. For Trump, it’s more like 100 hours. Pardons, deporting dangerous illegal immigrants, changing names on maps, tariffs, eliminating DEI, AI infrastructure, visits to North Carolina and Los Angeles, and at least 100 of other Executive orders.

Speaking of pardons, both Biden and Trump are getting hammered. Biden pardoned his whole family, apparently including 6 (or 7) grandchildren, plus a few murderers. His “pre-pardon” of a few other politicians has people wondering what they are guilty of and if we need some restrictions on presidential pardons.

Trump quickly pardoned everyone convicted in the January 6, 2021, charge into the Capitol, and a lot of old folks who were jailed for protesting at abortion clinics. I think he should have been more selective with the J-6 riot leaders; a few probably deserved to still be in jail. My advice to everyone who has received a “controversial pardon” is to go home, be thankful, and stay quiet.

I got an update from my friend with the four fancy gowns and patriotic boots. She got to wear three of the gowns as she and her husband danced at the All-American Ball on Saturday night, the Texas Ball on Sunday, and the Military Ball with Rally4Vets after the Inauguration on Monday night. The Texas Ball drew 6000 and she said, “The sparkling cowboy boots fit right in with the sparkle and shine and the patriotic theme. It was a night where Democrats and Republicans celebrated ‘Patriotism before Politics.’” Say, that’s a good theme for all of us.

Fires are still burning in California. And the ears of a few political leaders are burning after being grilled by President Trump. To paraphrase an exchange, Mayor Bass said, Red tape has been cut, and residents in Pacific Palisades can start to clean up their house sites in a week. Trump replied, A week? Let ‘em start tomorrow! (See the two quotes below about California water and calamities.)

The Kansas City Chiefs will play in the Super Bowl for the third straight time, on Feb. 9. Their opponent is the Philadelphia Eagles (or as the Mayor spells it, E-G-S-E-S).

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“We’re up here taking scenes on the river [for the movie, Steamboat Round the Bend].  We’re working on the Sacramento River.  And we could have worked on the Los Angeles River, but they’d have had to haul the water too far.” Radio, May 19, 1935

“We had an earthquake… You see the Lord in his justice works everything on a handicap basis. California having the best of everything else must take a slice of the calamities. Even my native Oklahoma — the Garden of Eden of the West — has a cyclone… New York with its splendors has its Wall Street, and Washington, the world’s most beautiful city, has a lobbyist crawling out to attack you from every manhole. So every human and every place is equal after all.” DT #2060, March 12, 1933

Weekly Comments: Martin Luther King. Inauguration. Football. And More on the Los Angeles Fires

COLUMBUS, Ohio: Could we pack any more events and activities into tomorrow, Jan. 20, 2025? Martin Luther King Day all day. At noon we’ll have a new (former) President Donald Trump. The National NCAA football championship, Notre Dame vs. Ohio State starts at 7:30.

And Inaugural Balls all over Washington, DC. A good friend is flying there with her husband. I think his main job is to lug all the suitcases. She is packing four fancy evening gowns. (No woman can show up and dance at different balls wearing the same outfit.) And boots. Only one pair, but what a pair. Red, white and blue pattern with 16,000 sequins. With her in the saddle wearing those patriotic boots glistening in the sun, any horse would high-step mighty proud down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Ohio State is favored to beat Notre Dame tomorrow night. Thanks to a recent change allowing college football players to be paid for NIL (name, image and likeness) these two teams are among the most highly compensated.

But the idea is not new. Will Rogers suggested this in 1929: “Mr. Hoover has had all the financiers of the country gathered and made ’em sign a pledge to spend some money for the general prosperity of the country. So next week he is really going into big business: he is calling the coaches of the various football teams together and get them to promise to build bigger grandstands, make longer trips and pay more for promising high school talent… That’s what’s the matter with this country… a lot of cheap colleges won’t go out and spend the dough. Bigger grandstands! Look at Chicago with Soldiers Field [hosting games with] Army and Navy and Notre Dame! Why, that’s brought ’em more publicity than Al Capone and machine guns combined.” (DT#1044, Nov. 29, 1929)

The news from Los Angeles keeps getting worse. With fires still burning, and more expected, we’re learning about solid, scientific advice that politicians have ignored for years.

Stephen Pyne, a retired professor at Arizona State University, is an internationally recognized expert on fires. He warned that building houses among the natural landscape around Los Angeles is “guaranteed to compromise fire prevention.” So, what’s his solution? Build houses with roofs that won’t catch fire when wind-blown embers land on them. And, equally important, have open space around the house. No bushes or trees within several feet of the house. And the entire region has to do this, no exceptions.

Wow, will the Governor and Legislature follow Prof. Pyne’s advice and pass laws that put fire prevention above environmentalists’ demands that no trees or brush ever be removed? How about metal roofs?

          The historic Will Rogers house was not the only “prominent” house to burn in Pacific Palisades. Several well-known actors, musicians, and others you see on television lost homes. For them, and everyone else in the region, the Will Rogers State Historic Park was a place to go and get away, kind of like Central Park is for New York City.

Will’s great granddaughter, Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry, knew at least 40 people who lost homes there, including nine who volunteered or worked at the Park. As I mentioned last week, to help those connected with the park, if you want to donate, go to: WillRogersRanchFoundtion.org, and click on “Join us in Rebuilding Lives.”

The historic quote gives another example of Will’s compassion, generosity and comfort, this time in Ireland.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

       “I had heard about that terrible Movie Disaster in the little Town of Drumcolloger [in Ireland; a fire in a theater killed 46] and by a coincidence I had passed through there when over here before. And it was such a quiet, peaceful little place and to have all this terrible trouble was certainly not deserved. So when I read about it and as I had finished playing in London, why I wired President Cosgrove of Ireland that I would come right over and for him to get me a Theatre and I would give a benefit. Well, they only had two days to do it in, but they did it, and they took over a big fine Theatre — the man donated it — and we had our show. They put on their wonderful Military Band and a Lady Singer and I want to tell you I have been mixed up in all kinds of shows but this one last night was the greatest one I ever was in. You talk about an audience! They were packed in! And you talk about “Getting” your stuff! Say, you leave it to these Irish. They get you and they get you good. If there is a speck of humor or fun in anything you say or do, they will dig it out, and they won’t be all day digging. They were without a doubt the most appreciative audience I ever saw in my life, and at moderate prices we got their fund about four thousand dollars. And then from New York come donations to me from Brandon Tynan, the best Irish Actor that ever started an argument, a Mr. Pandem of New York, and Mr. Frank Sogan, and Miss Lois Wilson the Movie Actress, and I want to hereby thank them and if they could have heard the applause their names got for thinking of those poor people away over there it would have done their hearts good. Had President Cosgrove in the Box and introduced him. He is doing a lot for Ireland.”  WA #198, Sept. 26, 1926

Los Angeles Fires Burn Will Rogers Historic Home

Will Rogers was a comforter.

This week, in his own way, Will Rogers is still providing comfort. Hundreds of neighbors of the Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades, California, have lost their homes to the wind-driven fires.

The house that Will and Betty built and lived in for the last ten years of his life was burned to the ground. The Will Rogers house (on the National Register of Historic Places) was the centerpiece of the 186-acre state park.

On losing the house, Will would probably say, “It’s just a house. It can be replaced. The lives lost, the memories that burned; those are priceless.”

The Will Rogers legacy as a comforter is in good hands. For the last 15 years, his great granddaughter, Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, has gladly accepted the role. Since Wednesday, she has received hundreds of text messages. Many are yearning for comfort from Will Rogers, and Jennifer is responding. She is giving comfort to those who have lost homes and families who lost loved ones.

Jennifer has been interviewed on California stations, Fox News, Newsmax, and even international news outlets. The love for Will Rogers is still there, almost 90 years after his death. “Will would be the first one on a plane to travel and raise funds for natural disasters. If he was alive today, he would be right there in the middle of it, seeing what he could do to help.”

Yes, Will offered support for so many suffering from disasters, including the Dust Bowl and a major fire in an Ireland movie theater while he was visiting the country. (See 3 more examples in the Historic quotes below.)

Among those who need help today are the people who work or volunteer at the park. Several lost their own homes!  Jennifer announced, “Our Will Rogers Ranch Foundation is accepting donations to help those people that were part of our community with Will Rogers State Historic Park. We’re going to help with transportation costs, help with housing, help with just the basic necessities.”

To join me in donating, go to: WillRogersRanchFoundtion.org, and click on “Join us in Rebuilding Lives.” Mail a check or donate by credit card. Thanks.

And while Los Angeles is in the spotlight, don’t forget about victims of Hurricane Helene, which killed over 100. There were no $25,000,000 houses lost in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, but that does not reduce the needs of those folks for compassion and comfort.

I’ll write more next week. The fires are still burning. High winds are predicted through Wednesday.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

       “I don’t believe our people that have never been around a flood area realize the tremendous need of these sufferers down on the Mississippi. It’s by far the worst thing that has happened in this country in years… Now we have a chance to help the poorest people we have in America, and that is the renter farmer. Mr. Ziegfeld has generously given me his wonderful new theatre in New York City, and I am going to put on my little one-man [show] for this great cause next Sunday night. So even if you don’t like cowboy gum chewers on the stage, come anyway and help out a real cause. They will get every cent that comes in, even if there is nobody there but my wife—who will have to pay to get in.” DT #236, Apr. 25, 1927

      “These people in the drought-stricken country ain’t waiting for the government to relieve ’em. Their well-to-do are helping their less fortunate themselves. At a matinee today in Wichita Falls, we [raised] $9,100. At Fort Worth tonight, the cowman’s paradise, we played to $18,000. At my breakfast matinee yesterday morning at Abilene at 10 o’clock, got $6,500, and every cent of that is net. People in America have got the money and will give if they know the need is there, and these people know it is.” DT #1411, Jan. 30, 1931

       “Well, here we are at Managua, Nicaragua… Eight days after [the earthquake] there is from one to three hundred bodies still under those ruins. Naturally what they need is money. The government or the people haven’t got a cent. The Red Cross combined with the relief organization here has done great work as usual and still is. They are feeding about 8,000… If through the Red Cross and public donations from up home they could get $250,000, it would relieve the situation as to food and get some roofs to cover these people… Goodness knows, you generous folks have been asked till you are ragged, but honest, if you saw it, you would dig again… It just falls where everything else does, on the generosity and goodness of the American people. If you saw, as I did this morning, 2,500 mothers with babies in their arms go by and get their ration of milk you would say there was some poor devil that needed it worse than you do.” WA #1469, Apr.8, 1931 (Will Rogers donated $5000 himself)

Weekly Comments: Football Playoffs. Trump’s Dealin’.

Well, friends, we made it to 2025. When I started writing these Weekly Comments in 1997, I had no idea these columns would last into the 28th year. We’re going through 5 Presidents (Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and soon, Donald Trump again).

In my first Weekly Comments, I ended with this Will Rogers quote, “A person learns in two ways: one is reading, the other is associating with smarter people.”

As I reread the Weekly Article it came from, I wish I had included a full paragraph, “I do hope I last long enough to reach your town. If it’s got a railroad and a Town Hall we will be there sooner or later. A Man only learns by two things, one is reading, and the other is association with smarter people. I don’t like to read and one can’t find the associates in New York. I am going out among the people whom New Yorkers call Rubes. But these people I am going out among are the people that just look at New Yorkers and laugh.”  WA #147, Oct. 5, 1925

Interestingly, Will wrote his 665 Weekly Articles, 1922-1935, through 4 Presidents (Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt).

In football, the NFL and colleges are into the playoffs. The first 12-team NCAA college football playoff is down to 4: Penn State will play Notre Dame, and Texas plays Ohio State. Oddly, none of the 4 conference champions survived. The winners of these two games will play Jan. 20 for the championship, a few hours after Trump becomes President again. The NFL Super Bowl will be Feb. 9.

President-Elect Trump was ridiculed when he suggested we buy Greenland from Denmark because of its abundant natural resources. Lincoln got the same reaction when he suggested we buy Alaska from Russia.

Trump also said, half-jokingly, that Canada could become our 51st state. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not amused despite Trump’s offer that he could be the Governor. Will Rogers discussed a similar plan a century ago and offered one of our border states as part of the deal. (see below)

Historic quote by Will Rogers: (on Canada)

         “Now I have no idea but what we could take [Canada] over and make a paying proposition out of them, for the country now is supplying about everything we use in the way of raw materials. But I hate to interrupt a friendship that has been going on now pretty steady since the battle of Lake Erie. You see they don’t owe us and they still think we are pretty good neighbors, so if we can just keep from annexing them and keep from loaning them anything in the way of a government debt, why we ought to be friends for years to come.
         Canada is principally an agricultural country and we raise more now than the farmers down home can sell for enough to put in the next year’s crop. About the only thing I can think of we could use it for would be a skating rink in the winter and we got such a poor class of skaters that we couldn’t hardly afford to maintain it just for that. Unless we could trade in Wisconsin on it some way, I can’t see any reason for annexing it. So I have advised against it.” WA #201, Oct. 17, 1926