media news

Trump-Media feud will poison the nation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdNjK4UoWxk

I was quite uncomfortable watching this exchange the other day between Donald J. Trump and a reporter for CNN.

It speaks so brightly to what we can expect from the next president of the United States. He called CNN a “fake news” organization because it reported on a story published by another media outlet regarding allegations that Trump has improper dealings with Russian government officials.

Oh … my!

Jim Acosta, the CNN reporter, sought to ask Trump a question after the president-elect had criticized CNN’s credibility and its newsgathering and reporting. He deserved to ask whatever question he wanted to pose and Trump needed to respond directly to whatever question Acosta would ask.

No. Instead, he chose to outshout the reporter and turn to someone else. This is not how you act “presidential,” Mr. President-elect.

local news

Welcome aboard, Jared Miller

So, it’s going to be Jared Miller taking his post as Amarillo’s next city manager.

I’ve spoken already about the process that brought Miller and four other city manager finalists to city residents’ attention. The process worked well and the City Council blessed itself with a good pool of five finalists from which to choose.

Miller is the current San Marcos city manager. The budget he handles there is a bit less than what he’ll manage in Amarillo; he supervises an employment payroll of a good bit less as well.

The council will pay him about a quarter-million bucks a year. He’ll earn it.

I’m going to make one request of the new guy: Find a way to keep Bob Cowell on your management team.

Cowell was another finalist for the permanent city manager’s job. He’d been named interim manager after Terry Childers popped off in November at a constituent and then quit abruptly. Childers had been brought in as an interim manager after City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit a little more than a year ago.

Cowell knows the ropes. He knows the players, including the five people who serve on the City Council. He brings institutional knowledge of Amarillo’s recent political turbulence. He could be a valuable resource for City Hall’s new man of the house.

I am going to offer a word of trust that the council has chosen well as well as a word of hope that the council will allow him to exercise the administrative authority — without interference from the council — that the city charter mandates.

Welcome to Amarillo, Jared Miller.

You’ll need to get busy. In a big hurry.

national news

Biden deserves the high praise

A question came to me after my post about Vice President Joe Biden receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction today from President Barack Obama.

It came from a reader of this blog who asks, simply: “What were Vice President Biden’s accomplishments?” The reader recalled when Biden in 1991 chaired the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that decided whether to recommend Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. He called Biden a “duplicitous blowhard.”

My sense, though, that Biden brought a kind of maturity to Barack Obama’s inner circle. He brought decades — three decades’ worth — of Senate experience; moreover, he brought several years, before his election to the Senate in 1972, of public service in Delaware.

Was there a signature achievement? Did the vice president author a policy or a strategy that the president followed? Was Joe Biden singularly responsible for a public policy decision?

I don’t believe he was successful in an outwardly visible way that the public would recognize.

I’ll accept the president’s accolades as a testament to the guidance and wise — and private — counsel that the vice president gave him during the tough times.

The gentleman who asked the question likely knows all of this. He did ask it, though, and I believe it’s worth sharing a brief response here to others who read these musings.

I suspect a lot of Americans perhaps are wondering the same thing about what Joe Biden accomplished during his eight years as vice president. We might not see it with our own eyes, but the man with whom he served in the White House surely did.

That’s good enough for me.

national news

Yes, Americans will miss this team

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Presidents and vice presidents haven’t always had the kind of relationship that Barack Obama and Joseph Biden have developed.

Lyndon Johnson famously summoned Hubert Humphrey to the White House for a conference … while LBJ was sitting on a commode; Dwight Eisenhower once responded to a question about what Richard Nixon contributed to his administration by saying: “If you give me a week, I’ll think of something”; John Nance Garner once referred to the vice presidency as being worth “a bucket of warm piss.”

To watch the current president bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the current vice president is to witness a true friendship that doubled as a national governing partnership.

The president added a final “with distinction” honor to the presentation, noting that such an honor is bestowed only rarely. He noted that his three immediate predecessors honored Pope John Paul II, President Reagan and Gen. Colin Powell “with distinction.”

With that, Vice President Biden joins some heady company.

And he deserves to stand with them.

Their partnership and friendship no doubt will make me miss them once they leave the public stage.

military news

New defense boss breaks with commander in chief-to-be

Imagine that … the man picked to lead the Defense Department thinks Russia is our No. 1 worldwide adversary and he’s sounding a good bit more anti-Kremlin than the man who nominated him, Donald J. Trump.

What’s going on here? Sanity is breaking out within the budding Trump administration.

Trump’s CIA director-designate, Mike Pompeo, calls waterboarding a form of “torture” and says he would refuse to obey a direct order to invoke “enhanced interrogation” techniques on enemy captives. Trump campaigned on a pledge to restore waterboarding.

Now we hear from Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis, who tells us that Russia is our top adversary and that the United States should honor the nuclear arms-production agreement it struck with Iran. Let’s see: Trump is buddies with Vladimir Putin and he says he’ll tear up the Iran nuke treaty when he takes office.

Mattis isn’t too keen on either matter, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-set-to-question-trumps-pentagon-pick-veteran-marine-gen-james-mattis/2017/01/11/b3c6946a-d816-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.2af606a6369a

Mattis is a retired Marine Corps general with plenty of combat experience. The man is a plain-spoken, in-your-face general-grade officer.

He said this about the Iran nuclear deal: “I think it is in an imperfect arms control agreement — it’s not a friendship treaty. But when America gives her word, we have to live up to it and work with our allies.”

I’m beginning to believe Trump might be surrounding himself with at least a couple of reasonable minds on his national security team.

He will need their wise counsel. I hope the hothead/know-it-all/commander in chief chooses to heed it.

International news, political news

Sanity emerges from among one of Trump’s picks

How about this, folks?

The man picked to be the next CIA director said today that he would “absolutely not” follow a direct order to torture enemy combatants in the search for information from them.

That includes waterboarding, according to Kansas U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, who is Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s head spook.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/313972-pompeo-would-absolutely-not-obey-torture-order-from-trump

I’ve been hoping to be able to speak well of a Trump appointee. Rep. Pompeo has given me the opportunity.

Pompeo is known to be a combative fellow. He struck a reasonable and moderate tone today as he testified before a Senate committee that is considering his pick to lead the CIA.

He doesn’t envision the new president issuing an order to torture enemy prisoner, Pompeo said under questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. I hope he is correct in his assumption about the new commander in chief.

Certain forms of torture have been referred to euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” According to The Hill: Asked if he could commit to senators that the CIA is “out of the enhanced interrogation business,” Pompeo affirmed that, “You have my full commitment.”

The new CIA boss will need to held accountable to that pledge.

I’m glad he made it.

business news

Fed up with poor service!

3 Comments

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

I made a personal pact not too many years ago to speak out when I get treated badly when I do business with someone.

Maybe it’s just because I am getting older — and as I draw closer to full-time retired status — which entitles me to some degree of crotchetiness.

The “service industry” has its name for a purpose: it is to inform those who work in that particular industry to provide good service to those with whom they are interacting.

That’s a simple concept to grasp, right? Right!

An event occurred some years ago that gave me the impetus to make the pact. I walked into an Amarillo coffee shop — I won’t mention which one — and apparently caught the barista in the middle of a very bad moment, or perhaps a bad day. He was rude to the max. I finished my transaction, walked out, went home — and then wrote a letter to the store manager complaining about the barista’s treatment of good ol’ yours truly. The manager responded with a note of his own — accompanied by a hand-written apology by the barista.

I’ve on occasion — along with my wife — verbalized displeasure with service. I have learned, as I’ve grown a bit older, that it’s a pretty painless endeavor.

Yesterday, it happened again. I went to a fast-food joint to make a small purchase. This place, too, shall remain anonymous. The young woman who took my order was, shall we say, apparently unhappy to take my money and provide me with the meal I had ordered.

No “thank you, sir.” No welcoming facial expression. No “Welcome, how may I help you?” Nothing, man!

I paid for my order, went home, consumed my lunch, and then wrote the store manager a note — which I just mailed this morning.

I’ve found these exercises to be somewhat cathartic. They are cleansing. They give me some emotional relief.

I don’t intend to make big deals of these encounters moving forward. My thought today is just to share with you the satisfaction one can get just by expressing oneself candidly.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not going to be firing off missives at every single slight. I’ll do it only when someone inflicts such a slight on me when I’m in no mood to take it.

media news

Trump continues his war with media

Dearest Reader,

Ladies and gents, today we witnessed the opening act of what we can expect will be a long-running melodrama featuring the president of the United States and the media that report on his comings and goings.

Donald J. Trump convened a press conference and began by attacking the media. It’s no surprise, of course, given his campaign-long attack on a media he accused of “rigging” the election in favor of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump%E2%80%99s-news-session-starts-war-with-and-within-media/ar-AAlMcQz?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

Trump won the election, though, but that hasn’t dissuaded him from continuing his full frontal assault on the media. Now he’s accusing some news outlets of putting out “fake news” relating to reports of Russian involvement in the hacking of Democratic computers.

He outshouted a CNN reporter today who wanted to ask him a question, calling his organization one of the bad guys among media organizations.

Today’s testy exchange with the media, I believe, signals a continuation of an assault by the president-elect. I expect it fully to continue once he actually becomes president.

It’s part of the formula that Trump parlayed to the Republican Party nomination; he appealed to the base of his party that hates the media as much as Trump now says he despises them. This is so very interesting to me, given the president-elect’s ability to play the media like a fiddle during his nomination fight and then his winning presidential campaign.

So … let’s all strap ourselves in for what appears to be a wild ride atop a rip-snorting bull.

The media’s job is to probe, to question on behalf of the public. The president’s job — whether he likes it or not — is to answer the media’s inquiries. Something tells me the new president will resist answering those questions whenever he can.

local news

City close to a new manager era

Amarillo appears poised to have a new city manager, perhaps not long after the sun rises Thursday.

It’s going to be one of five men who have answered the call by the Amarillo City Council for someone to become the city’s chief administrator, the go-to guy who will run a city government that answers to 200,000 residents. The council reportedly has tendered an offer to one of the men.

I’ve been thinking a bit about who the city should choose. I’ve come to a conclusion that involves one of the applicants: If the council doesn’t choose current interim City Manager Bob Cowell, then it’s my hope that Cowell remains part of the city’s top municipal management team.

I don’t know Bob Cowell, who came on board after I resigned my job at the Amarillo Globe-News.

All five of the candidates appear to have solid experience and backgrounds in municipal and county government. Any one of them — from what I’ve read about them through the media — would be good picks.

Why focus on Cowell? As someone with intimate knowledge of city government told me Monday night at the meet-and-greet session with the five candidates at the Civic Center, City Hall has a number of key positions to fill. A lot of top hands have left the city as a result of the tumult that has occurred at Seventh and Buchanan.

If the council has chosen Cowell to be the top man, then he would step in with a substantial bit of what’s commonly called “institutional knowledge.” He knows the lay of the land, the principal players and the direction of the political winds.

If the council goes with someone else, then perhaps Cowell could be persuaded to stay on as deputy manager, a post he held until assuming the interim job … again, according to my friend with all the knowledge of city government and politics. Cowell’s knowledge of the local landscape would be a valuable asset to whomever takes over as City Hall’s top hand.

So, with that … we shall see who the council picks. It’s a major decision that will have tremendous impact on those of us who live here and depend on the city serving our needs.

national news

Film reminds us of space race thrill

We just returned from watching a film that reminds me of the excitement of an earlier time.

I wish we could gin it up once again.

“Hidden Figures” is a story about a math genius, a computer genius and a budding engineer — all of whom are African-American women — who go to work for NASA in the early 1960s. The space race was getting revved up. The Soviet Union had launched Sputnik and sent Yuri Gagarin around the world in a 100-minute orbit. The United States was still trying to figure out how to launch its Redstone rocket that would take Alan Shepard on a 15-minute up-and-down flight into space before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

They needed this young math whiz to figure out landing coordinates. Taraji P. Henson portrays Katherine Goble Johnson, the math genius who is asked to verify the coordinates where John Glenn’s spacecraft is supposed to land after completing a few orbits around the planet.

The film relays the sense of urgency we felt then. President Kennedy implored the nation to pursue space flight “not because it is easy … but because it is hard.”

It occurred to me while watching the film with my wife that our recent presidential campaign didn’t produce a single policy statement or pledge — that I heard, at least — from either Donald J. Trump or Hillary Rodham Clinton about restoring and resuming the U.S. manned space program.

The candidates were too busy insulting each other and impugning each other’s integrity to spend time talking about much of anything of substance.

I consider manned space flight a fairly substantive issue to pursue.

The United States scrapped its space shuttle program and is now hitching rides aboard Russian space ships into Earth orbit. I’m trying to imagine how Presidents Kennedy and Johnson would feel about that particular turn of events.

Even during his farewell speech to the nation Tuesday night, President Obama said not a single thing about the future of space flight. I wish he would have at least offered an ode to the future of manned space exploration as something future presidents and Congresses should pursue.

The film we watched today affirms to me that this nation has it within its soul and spirit to reach farther than ever before. We’ve landed on the moon. We made space flight “routine,” through those shuttle missions, if you believe a program that took the lives of 14 astronauts should ever deserve to be considered routine.

NASA is developing a deep-space craft that is supposed to take human beings to Mars, or perhaps to one of the asteroids, or perhaps to one of Jupiter’s moons.

I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to see that happen. I damn sure hope so. The film we saw today has reinvigorated my desire to see us reach beyond our comfort zone yet again.

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