When I heard the news that Bob Gibson had died of cancer at the age of 84 I thought immediately of a radio interview I heard that mentioned Gibson’s name.
Bob Gibson was a first-ballot Major League Baseball Hall of Famer. He played his entire career with the St. Louis Cardinals. He won 251 games with the Cardinals and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981.
He was a throwback to a time when pitchers controlled the field, controlled the game. One did not mess with Bob Gibson. Not ever!
Years ago, I was listening to a sports radio talk show. The host had former Philadelphia Phillies third baseman (and Hall of Famer) Mike Schmidt on the air. Schmidt was talking about how too many hitters like to stand in the batter’s box and watch their home runs fly into the stands, at which point they prance their way around the base paths.
Schmidt said in his day, pitchers wouldn’t stand for it. He mentioned a pitcher specifically who he said would take matters into his own hands: Bob Gibson. The next time the batter would come to the plate to face Gibson, Schmidt said, he would be greeted by a 95-mph fastball thrown at his head that Gibson would hurl at him.
Yeah, Bob Gibson was one tough dude. He also was a champion.
If there is an issue that demands continuity in a government response it must include the health and well-being of our head of state and commander in chief.
Are we getting now from the White House as Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, battle the coronavirus? Hardly.
We are getting more of the chaotic mixed messaging that has afflicted the White House since, oh, when Trump became president.
Donald Trump is a patient at Walter Reed Medical Center. The doctors tell us that Trump’s condition is progressing; then we hear from others close to the situation that Trump’s vital signs are “worrisome” and that the next 48 hours will be critical.
Which is it?
Americans cannot get a clear reading of whether the doctors administered oxygen to Trump. White House doctors tell us that he doesn’t have oxygen “right now,” or “today.” No mention of whether he ever has received it.
We don’t know when Trump might have tested positive for the virus and whether he continued his activities for another full day after getting the diagnosis.
So many questions. The White House seems unable or unwilling to deliver a clear, unambiguous message. What’s at stake? The health of the president. Not only that, we have our national security apparatus in potential jeopardy when the public does not have a clear understanding of the president’s health.
Donald Trump, lest we forget, happens to be part of a major at-risk group: elderly, overweight males are among those most vulnerable to serious symptoms if they test positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Therefore, we need a crystal clear message that tells us the whole truth about the physical condition of president.
My friends and former neighbors in Amarillo have a big decision to make on Nov. 3.
They will have to decide whether to improve the Civic Center. From what I understand, plans call for a serious expansion of the convention space, the Cal Farley Coliseum, along with lots of cosmetic improvements throughout the complex.
What I am still trying to understand, though, is the supposed “relocation” of City Hall. I have not yet determined whether the city has found a site to relocate its government operations center, which at one time was supposed to be part of the entire bond issue. I do hope it does have a site. The city council recently agreed on a contract in the nearby warehouse district that could produce a location for City Hall. The city reportedly has decided to delay a decision on relocation until after the election. From what I have seen on a couple of news sites the council hasn’t yet made a firm decision on where it intends to place its government office.
As KFDA NewsChannel 10 has reported: Mayor Ginger Nelson says the continuous repairs to the current building and cost efficiency drove this decision. “Just seeing what our options were there, it was important to us to take an existing building,” said Nelson “We thought that was a better use of taxpayer dollars and there were some cost efficiency to be gained by refurbishing an existing building vs buying a brand-new building.”
The city is hoping to invest a couple hundred million dollars-plus of public money on the Civic Center. Getting it approved in this Pandemic Era well could be a tough sell.
A big part of me wishes the city well. The Civic Center needs work. Amarillo isn’t getting a lot of top-drawer entertainment acts, which end up venturing down the interstate to Lubbock where the spacious United Center awaits.
How would I vote? Probably “yes.” As for the City Hall relocation, the city should proceed with tremendous caution and care. That project all by itself is a huge deal.
What do I wish at the end of this bizarre presidential campaign season?
A lot of things, to be candid. One of them happens to be a standard by which we don’t call attention to simple gestures that we used to take for granted.
Former President Obama wrote this on Twitter:
Michelle and I hope that the President, First Lady, and all those affected by the coronavirus around the country are getting the care they need and are on the path to a speedy recovery. Obviously, we’re in the midst of a big political battle right now, and while there’s a lot at stake, let’s remember that we’re all Americans. We’re all human beings. And we want everyone to be healthy, no matter our party.
Donald Trump’s hospitalization, along with first lady Melania Trump’s affliction with the COVID-19 virus, brings to mind the expressions of concern that have come from Joe Biden, among others. Then we have President Obama offering his own good wishes to the man who despises him.
This kind of once-common outreach has been plowed asunder by the venom, vitriol and venality of the past four years. It has sickened me beyond belief. Yes, I have been sucked into it at times and I do regret some of the hyper-angry rhetoric that has poured forth on this blog.
I want a return to civility. They call it “comity” in the halls of power. It’s just another word for civility and courtesy. There has been so little of it coming from the White House and, yes, from Capitol Hill.
Joe Biden spent 36 years in the Senate before becoming vice president during the Obama years. He says he wants to restore our national “soul.” Part of what has been missing from our political discourse has been the common touch of decency that used to be commonplace.
You’ll recall when the gunman opened fire in 2017 on Republican members of Congress practicing for the bipartisan baseball game. House GOP Whip Steve Scalise was nearly killed by the lunatic. When he returned to the House floor, all the members stood and applauded. Leading the applause was House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who said in that moment “we were all Italian.”
One of many fond hopes I have for a Biden presidency if it comes to that after the election is that we can set aside the hatred and the view that our foes are our “enemies.”
A series of political signs caught my eye recently while driving along Lucas Avenue just east of Allen in Collin County, Texas.
“Keep Your Republican Judges” the signs blurt out.
The signs bring to mind a question I used to ask Texas judicial candidates while I was working for a living as a newspaper editor.
“Can you tell me the difference,” I would ask, “between Democratic justice and Republican justice?” The answer from judges and judicial candidates in either party was essentially the same. They couldn’t differentiate between the parties.
That brings me to a point I have been harping on since The Flood, which is that if Texas is going to keep electing its judges it needs to remove the partisan label from these races.
I have more or less given up on the notion of appointing judges and then having them stand for “retention” at the ballot box. Texas seems wedded to the notion of electing judges, which we do at all manner of levels: justices of the peace, to county court at law judges, to district judges, to appellate court judges, to the Court of Criminal Appeals and to the Texas Supreme Court.
They all run either as Democrats or Republicans. Depending on the relative strength of either party at the time, we have tossed out fine judges from the weaker of the two parties.
As late as the early 1980s, when Democrats remained strong in Texas, fine GOP judges got the boot. Then the tide turned and Texans began tossing out fine Democratic judges in favor of GOP judges. Why? Because they were of the party in power.
It doesn’t make sense to me.
Judges who adjudicate criminal and civil cases do not deliver justice on the basis of partisan leaning. Appellate judges, be they sitting on regional appellate benches or on the state’s top two appellate courts — the CCA or the Supreme Court — do not interpret the Texas Constitution on a partisan level.
I can understand selecting judges based on their judicial philosophy. If they are too soft or too harsh in their judgments, then allow voters to make their selection on that basis.
Partisan labels don’t belong in our state’s judicial contests.
Having wished Donald and Melania Trump a speedy recovery from the coronavirus, I now wish to slap the sh** out of The Donald for what he has produced.
He has delivered us an actual “outbreak” of infections caused by his refusal to wear a mask with others around him or to demand that everyone in his presence exercise social distancing in the wake of the pandemic that continues to kill too many Americans every single day.
Several people who were hobnobbing with Trump prior to his diagnosis now have tested positive for the virus. Let’s see:
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, former White House senior policy adviser Kellyanne Conway, White House aide Hope Hicks, at least three White House beat reporters, and perhaps a host of others all have the disease. Have I missed anyone?
Yep, I would call that an “outbreak.”
Donald Trump insisted on staging those rallies. Crowds showed up sans masks. They were crowded together. They were cheering, laughing, carrying on as if they didn’t have a care in the world … all the while transmitting COVID germs among themselves.
There was the POTUS, taking it all in.
He didn’t give a rip about the safety of those who adore his presence as president of the United States.
Now he is paying the price. So are those who were careless and thoughtless enough to forgo the safety procedures preached to them by the doctors and assorted scientific experts.
Whatever happened to leading by example? Donald Trump is leading by setting the wrong example at every possible turn.
I still wish everyone a speedy recovery. I also still wish them all to be tossed out of public office as soon as is humanly possible.
I have a friend who lives in Nuremberg, Germany and who also is a print journalist who works for a newspaper called Nurnberger Nachrichten.
My friend asked me to put together an essay about the seeming conflict I have in opposing Donald J. Trump while living in the heart of what might be considered Trump Country. I wrote the essay. My friend — who speak impeccable English — is going to translate it into German and will publish the essay in his newspaper.
I want to share with readers of High Plains Blogger what I wrote for my German friend. So, with that …
***
Politicians of both major U.S. parties agree on precisely one thing regarding the upcoming election of our president.
It is that we are going to conduct “the most consequential election” in memory. Perhaps in the history of our republic.
I tend to believe that the election we are about to conduct falls into the latter category of consequence. This one means more than any previous election we ever have had in our country’s history.
What is at stake? Let me count as many as I can think of at this moment.
Donald Trump has emerged as the most dangerous man ever to be elected president. I did not vote for him in 2016 and I will not vote for his re-election this time. The danger he presents is manyfold.
Trump brought no public service experience to the presidency. He has no appreciation for public service or for those who perform it. He states a bizarre affection for authoritarian leaders, citing specifically North Korean killer/tyrant/despot Kim Jong Un and Turkey’s strongman Recipp Erdogan. Trump’s affection for Russia’s Vladimir Putin is well-known.
I believe Trump sees himself as an authoritarian figure and wants to bend our system of government to conform to his desire to be the man who controls everything. Our nation’s founding fathers built a government that is based on limited presidential power and the sharing of power with Congress and the federal courts. Trump does not understand that concept. Why? He is ignorant in the extreme.
I spent more than 30 years as a print journalist and in my years since retirement I have continued to comment on political matters through my blog, High Plains Blogger. I live in Texas, which many Americans consider to be the heart of Trump Country. Yes, he won Texas’s electoral votes in 2016 but I am happy to report at this moment that the contest for our state’s electoral votes is anyone’s guess. Polling shows former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden running practically even with Trump.
Still, my blog tends to paint me as a political outlier, given that I am surrounded by Trump supporters. Indeed, I have many friends – and even a few family members – who align with Trump. I love them all in spite of our differences.
We vote in Texas in an “open primary” system, which means that when we vote in the primary, we simply choose which party we want to vote in on Election Day. I tend to vote Democrat, but I have voted Republican at times, depending on the local races involved. This presidential election has been difficult for me in one regard: I am solidly behind Joe Biden’s candidacy, but almost all my friends either are leaning toward Trump or are dedicated to re-electing him. I do not discuss presidential politics with them. It has become commonplace in Texas, I believe, for friends and family members to avoid discussing politics when there are differences of opinion regarding the presidential candidates.
Trump’s presidency has changed the mood in the United States. His divisive rhetoric has driven a wedge between family members. I have heard too many stories from people I know about how their family relationships have been damaged or even destroyed by those differences. It is one of the many tragedies surrounding this man’s presidency.
None of this shames nor embarrasses me. It does make me angry. The level of disagreement has reached a level I do not recognize from previous political eras. There is a saying in Texas that “politics is a contact sport.” I fear that it has become more of a “collision sport,” with both sides intent on inflicting permanent damage on each other. I am retired these days from daily journalism, so I am decidedly less inclined to expose myself to the collisions that are occurring all around me in Texas as my friends, neighbors and family members continue to debate the issues surrounding this campaign.
Trump’s dangerous presidency needs to be replaced with a president who understands how government works. Trump campaigned for president in 2016 vowing to “put America first.” He has insulted our international allies in the process. Trump’s threats to withdraw our nation’s support of NATO – the pre-eminent international alliance on Earth – has been frightening in the extreme. Those threats play directly into the desire of Putin, whose aim is to undermine NATO, which as you know was formed to deter aggression from what was known then as the Soviet Union.
Let us extend the danger to Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. I believe we are the only major nation on Earth to stand apart from those accords. Dangerous? You had better believe it!
Trump has long boasted about how smart he is, how rich he is, how worldly he is. Trump’s intelligence is now an open question, as is his wealth. My own view has been that individuals who are truly smart and truly wealthy should have no need to keep telling others about their intelligence and wealth. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney once described Trump as a “phony” and a “fraud.” Trump’s continued boasting of his wealth and intelligence confirms Romney’s view.
Americans face a critical decision on Nov. 3. It is the most critical election certainly in my lifetime. It stands as the most critical election in our nation’s history.
America’s Electoral College allowed for the election of a guy who played to Americans’ fears. We are paying the price for acting on those fears. It is my sincere hope we can snap out of it in time to elect someone who has an actual understanding of how government works.
And who knows? Texas, which for a long time has been a Republican bastion, has become what we call a “battleground state,” meaning that both presidential candidates are focusing more attention – and spending more money – to win our votes. There might be a glimmer of hope that when the ballots are counted, I might no longer be an “outlier” in a state known for its rough-and-tumble politics.
It is utterly impossible to avoid putting a political spin on news that Donald and Melania Trump have contracted the coronavirus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.
I wish a complete recovery for the first couple.
I also believe that Trump should pay the ultimate political price because of what has transpired. He has tested positive for a virus he once called a “Democrat hoax,” which he has sought to play down because he didn’t want to “panic” Americans, which he keeps telling us is “under control” and which he has said will be disappear miraculously.
Donald Trump now becomes the leading exhibit for discussion about the falsehoods he has been telling for most of this year.
The pandemic is not getting any better. We’re in the middle apparently of yet another surge in illness and death.
Donald Trump is running for re-election partly by touting the “fantastic job” he says his administration has done. He has ignored medical experts’ advice about wearing a mask or keeping a social distance from others.
He is now paying a price. Trump is likely to pay a steep political price as well … as he should.
Trump mocked Joe Biden earlier this week because the Democratic Party presidential nominee wears a mask. Unbelievable! Biden shrugged it off with a chuckle.
We are heading now into the final month of the most unusual election season in anyone’s memory. Yes, the election will be a referendum on Donald Trump’s mishandling of the initial response to the pandemic. Indeed, his continued response has been an exercise in fecklessness, too.
There will be no more claims of “Democrat hoax.” Nor will there be any more mocking of those who wear masks or keep their distance from others. That’s all fine. The damage politically has been done to Trump, in my view.
If there is a silver lining behind the news that Donald and Melania Trump have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, it is that we no longer will hear (I hope) Donald Trump refer to the coronavirus as a “hoax.”
He had better take it seriously from this moment forward. He should set the example he should have set from Day One. Trump needs to understand as well that the administration has nothing “under control” and that the pandemic is still raging at full force.
The diagnosis is concerning in the extreme. The nation’s executive branch needs to function fully and it cannot when the individual at the top of the chain of command is recovering from a virus that could potentially do serious harm to him.
The “hoax” nonsense has now been relegated to being a thing of the past. It’s real and Donald Trump no longer can dismiss it publicly as something akin to the flu.
I just have to ask: How many of us were really surprised to awaken today to the news that Donald and Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus?
Not me. I mean, c’mon! The president speaks of the pandemic as if it’s “under control,” he dismisses the wearing of masks, he hold rallies with crowds of adoring fans packed shoulder to shoulder in front of him and one of his closest aides, Hope Hicks, tests positive for the virus.
Now, having said that, I do not want the first couple to suffer grievously from the disease. Accordingly, I was pleased to learn this morning that their young son, Barron, tested negative; so let’s hope the youngster keeps his good health.
However, the very notion that Donald Trump would be so terribly dismissive of the pandemic and would mock Joe Biden — the Democratic nominee who is running against him — for wearing a mask only tempts me to say, “I told you so.”
I won’t speak specifically to what this bombshell news will do to the presidential campaign. It’s too early to tell whether it will sound the death knell for Trump’s effort to get re-elected.
The news, though, should bring the administration’s non-response to the pandemic back to the top of voters’ awareness. Trump’s mishandling of the initial response now has been essentially validated by Trump’s own words, as he spoke them to Washington Post reporter/editor Bob Woodward. He knew initially that the pandemic would kill many Americans, but lied to the public about the looming threat.
Trump has sought to change the subject. He cannot possibly change it now.
My wish is for Trump and the first lady to get well … and then for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to defeat him handily on Election Day.
The time has come for some truth-telling at the White House.
