Jeff Messer is the host of a daily radio talk show on Asheville’s WPEK (880-AM, The Revolution) that airs from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. This column features posts from his daily blog.

•

The following was posted on Jan. 20:

William Shatner made some waves about a half-dozen years ago or so, when he did live musical interpretations of Sarah Palin speeches.

Palin made waves in her inimitable and incoherent style, as she stepped on stage with Donald Trump yesterday to endorse him for president, much to the chagrin of Ted Cruz, who used to be her work boyfriend in Tea Party land.

She babbled and blathered, with such idiotic fervor that it would take an advanced degree in English to even begin to try and conjugate her run-on sentences of senselessness. This is the result of us indulging in making stupid people think they are geniuses.

Cue Tina Fey and “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, where all they have to do is just use a transcript of the Palin speech. It will certainly get more laughs than Palin got applause at her appearance in Iowa.

The whole matter, as far as Trump is concerned, is just a ruthless, cut throat business move to hurt Ted Cruz, who had the audacity to actually provide worthy challenge to Trump’s dominance.

Mr. Art Of The Deal is in it to win it at all costs, and no one will stand in his way. 

So he brought in Cruz’s Mama Grizzly buddy to deliver a vice-grip jawed snarling mauling that would make Leonardo DeCaprio wince, and declare it to be “too far.”

Anyone who has bothered to figure Trump out at this point, should know by now that he is in it to win it by any means necessary. And he will do whatever it takes. He isn’t above having Palin show up just to shave off a couple of points from Cruz’s slight lead over him in Iowa. Trump has a scorched-earth policy, and he is making his big strafing run over Cruz’s Canadian/Cuban by way of Texas campaign.

Trump openly brags about his style each and every day. Don’t believe me? 

Just turn on any news channel. They can’t not aim cameras and microphones at him. He doesn’t have to pay them to cover him, they are making a fortune off of people tuning in to see just how crazy Trump was today. He’s working them, and they don’t mind, because they are profiting from it. He’s proving his point, and they don’t seem to care as long as the dollars are rolling their way. 

And he makes sure we all know what a mockery he is making of the media, the political system and our head-up-our-(expletive deleted) in America.

It is high camp, high satire and so shockingly spot on, it is horrifying to those who peel back the layers for a deeper look at the implications of what Trump is doing. And at what cost.

Will Palin provide any real bounce for Trump, who is already running well ahead of the rest of the pack? Does she need to? Or is this just a pride move from Trump to make sure he runs the table and wins in Iowa, then New Hampshire. He’s just such a ruthless business man, with a cut-throat mentality that he wants to win them all. And even though the winners in Iowa in recent years have not gone on to win the Presidency, or even New Hampshire, for that matter, Trump wants it. 

There’s a complete set of 50 states and he aims to collect them all. Palin might just scoop up some of the folks who love her and love Cruz, who love her just a little more than him, and are willing to jump to Trump.

And that’s all he wants and needs from her.

It really is that simple.

And, for those who recall how easy it is to mock Palin and her lunatic talk, you might recall when the great William Shatner took to TV and simple recreated her speeches, word for word, to massive comedic effect.

The following was posted on Jan. 8:

Local woman busted for prostitution trying to help sick spouse, family

A shocking local story that got my attention has turned into a passionate conversation on social media early in 2016.

It hits all the closer to home, as it is in Waynesville, which is my hometown.

The story goes like this:

A woman begins working out of her home as a prostitute after her husband needed skin cancer treatments, and they were without health care. The kids needed money for band and school, as well as just maintaining a day to day life. Desperate times calling for desperate measures, I suppose.

With kids to feed and take care of, a husband who is uninsured needing treatments that were stated to be a minimum of $5000, and with bills stacking up, she decided to sell herself for sex.

And now she is going to face criminal charges.

The shame of it is that the true criminal acts here are the ones put upon this family who are barely getting by to start with. We’ve all heard the old adage of being “one medical crisis from the brink of ruin.” Well, this is the living example of that.

Some would say she could just get a job working fast food. Right. At below poverty wages.

There’s something that is criminal: the wage war against the poor that is allowed to be carried out in this nation.

How about the insurance industry? The cost of treatments which are out of the reach of many people?

Yet taking money for sex is the crime they chose to focus on. Why? Why is it criminal? Who does it hurt? Consenting adults should have the freedom to do this, right? Where are all the Libertarians who want government out of their lives?

The government that is most in our lives is the criminal justice system that is criminal and has little to do with justice for those who can’t afford to buy rights and freedom (which is indeed not free to all, no doubt.)

What I have seen in reaction to this woman’s plight has been massive support for her, and a lot of outrage that she is being charged for prostitution.

We are so backward in this nation when it comes to morality issues like this, while we have no problem denying hungry children and elder people proper care. 

And I am disgusted by the so-called “Christians” who are fine with the later, while being outraged by the actions of this woman.

Perhaps we should concern ourselves with actual concerns of criminality, and start looking for leadership who will begin to de-fang the vipers of the criminal justice money-making machine that openly and freely preys upon those who can not defend themselves. You know? 

The ones who the law enforcers are supposed to serve and protect. And, if you need the Christian persuasion on it: How about the least among us?

 We need to decriminalize a lot of things that are creating devastation upon people in this country. And we need to make that a major issue moving forward.