economic news

Make ’em pay their share

I feel this overwhelming desire to put this blogger’s current word of the day into perspective.

The word is “greed,” and it clearly has wrapped itself around the hearts and minds of mega-rich Americans over the issue of paying their fair share of taxes.

Donald Trump’s spending and taxation bill is now law and it contains those infamous tax breaks for the richest among us. Please consider the following …

If we demand that billionaires pay their fair share of taxes, they would still be richer than God. The going rate is about 38%. If someone were to pay that amount in taxes on $1 billion in gross income during a given calendar year, that still leaves the billionaire with more than $600 million in gross income for that year.

What could the government do with the money it collects from the billionaire? It could parcel it out to replenish food and housing assistance for Americans who are about to be deprived of such assistance. How about spending more money to arm Ukrainians with hardware to fight the invading Russian army?

We could do all of that … and the richest of the rich can still float around in their yachts and enjoy the decadent lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

national news

We’re still an immigrant nation

Americans lit the first birthday candle on their national cake 249 years ago when they declared their independence from the British monarchy.

We went to war to secure that independence and by 1789, the Constitution was completed. It was a flawed document that has needed some amendments along the way to create a “more perfect Union.”

A central tenet has remained. We were a nation created by people who fled other countries, came here in search of opportunity and the “pursuit of happiness.” That mission is underway at this very minute.

Let us never forget that essential truth about the United States of America. We were built by immigrants. Our nation has continued to thrive and prosper largely because of immigrants who came along later.

I am the direct descendant of immigrants. They came here from southern Greece and from Turkey. They did it legally. They had all the documentation required of them. They settled eventually in Portland, Ore. My grandparents all were proud Americans. They chose to live here. They weren’t blessed with being born here. One of my grandfathers, my Papou George, enlisted in the U.S. Army because he wanted to fight for his new country in World War I. They all came here in search of a good life … and they found it.

I understand and accept the current administration’s desire to crack down on illegal immigration. What I cannot accept is the brutish tactics being used to separate families, to deport individuals who have committed no crimes. I cannot accept the description being muttered out loud that immigrants in general have soiled our national identity.

All of this is fundamentlly ani-American. It goes against the very principles our founders used to create what would become the greatest nation on Earth.

Let us never forget — and may we always honor — our national history of welcoming immigrants to our land. Our immigrant heritage clearly is worth celebrating as we honor the birth of the world’s most indispensable nation.

national news

The Age of Political Perversion

Welcome to a new age that I will call the Age of Political Perversion, where perverts hijack the tenets of our democratic republic for their own nefarious aims.

The perverts say they love the flag, but a few hundred of them used Old Glory to assault police offices in the nation’s Capitol on 1/6, inflicting serious bodily harm in the process.

They claim to be evangelical Christians, yet they throw their support behind a man who has admitted to cheating on his wives, admitted to groping women in their private areas and has been found liable for the sexual assault on a woman who accused him of raping her.

They say they cherish family values but now support efforts to separate children from their parents over alleged illegal entry into the United States.

They call themselves “strict constructionists” of the Constitution, but then challenge a free and fair presidential election and seek to overturn its result.

We’re going to celebrate our nation’s birth. It’s been more than two centuries since we tossed aside the ham-fisted rule of the British monarchy. Our nation’s founders established a secular government devoid of any reference to a specific religion. Yet many of our founders’ descendants contend this is a “Christian nation” founded on the principles espoused in the New Testament. The founders were men of faith but they kept their faith to themselves and purposely established that there “shall be no law” establishing a state religion.

I love the flag. I salute Old Glory whenever possible. I am going to fly it in front of my home tomorrow. Let us remember, though, that the flag is a symbol of freedom and liberty. It isn’t a sacred piece of merchandise. Its sacred qualities lie in the liberty it represents.

So, when the president of the USA decides to hug and kiss Old Glory — which the current guy did a few years ago — he only furthers the perversion of the movement that follows his every lying word.

Happy birthday, America. Many of us still love you.

national news

Get ready for some serious pain

I am going to doff my proverbial cap and proclaim that Donald J. Trump did the nearly impossible by persuading enough Republican members of Congress that it was in their best political interest to approve Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that gives tax cuts to rich folks who don’t need them while yanking money away from programs that help millions of other Americans who need the assistance.

I don’t recall Trump ever campaigning for the issues he managed to accomplish with this legislation. He never said he would slash Medicare and Medicaid while giving more tax cuts to the mega-wealthy. He never pledged to gut the USAID funds that help feed starving children abroad. He didn’t say he would all but destroy the social fabric of our government.

That is what Congress has signed on to do. The Senate needed a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance to send the bill to the House. And the House needed to get a first-class bullying job from Trump to send this piece of sh** legislation to Trump’s desk for his signature.

What’s next? I suppose we now have the 2026 congressional election coming up. There must be a formula for turning Congress over to the control of the opposition party that actually cares about the entire country, rather than just those who support what passes for the Republican Party … and the RINO in Chief.

I will offer a left-handed tribute to Trump for defying all the odds and getting his fellow nation-haters to climb aboard the clown car that now governs us.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have been exposed as a powerless collection of men and women who cannot find their backside with both hands. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries set a House record for speaking for the longest stretch ever. Big deal. Congressional elections are coming up next year. This is the best opportunity voters will have to change the dynamic in Washington and restore some semblance of compassion in a government that today demonstrated that it has nothing to offer.

crime news, legal news

He still did the crime … why let up?

Once in a blue moon some aspects of criminal law make me scratch my noggin till it bleeds.

Take the case of Bryan Kohlberger, a young man charged with the brutal murder of four college students in Moscow, Idaho. Kohlberger was set to stand trial for the brutal stabbing deaths. He had said initially he didn’t do it.

Now he has changed his tune. He pleaded guilty today to doing the crime that caused a nationwide manhunt in 2022. The cops found Kohlberger holed up in Pennsylvania. They brought him back to Idaho to stand trial. If convicted he faced the death penalty; I don’t know they do it in Idaho … but that’s beside the point now.

You see, by entering the guilty plea in a deal worked out with prosecutors, Kohlberger is going to avoid the ultimate punishment for the ultimate crime.

Here’s where the head-scratching commences. How do defendants accused of such horrifying crimes skate clear of the executioner simply by admitting they did the deed for which they would have stood trial?

I’ll have to stipulate that I am not a death penalty proponent. I am glad Kohlberger now will spend what’s left of his life in prison. My philosophical opposition to state-sponsored killing of defendants, though, is beside the point I am seeking to make with this post.

If someone admits to committing a crime as horrifying as what Kohlberger has admitted to committing, then why lessen the penalty the law requires him to pay?

I’ve heard official reasons. A guilty plea saves a state a lot of money. He won’t have any avenues for appeal. It costs the state a lot of money to put defendants to death.

However, I am still puzzled by the notion that admitting to a crime as horrifying as what Kohlberger did saves him from paying the ultimate price.

local news, religious news

That was some celebration

I have been home for a couple of days, but I remain filled with emotion over an event I attended this past Saturday in the church where my wife and I belonged for more than two decades.

It was a celebration of life to honor a woman who lived a glorious, joyful and faithful life on this Earth. Her name was Caroline Woodburn, a former Potter County district clerk, a self-described Barry Goldwater Republican, mother of three accomplished children and wife of a district judge in Amarillo.

The church sanctuary was packed. The Woodburn kids — two daughters and a son — all spoke eloquently about the life their mother led. The music was appropriately dignified and glorious. The preacher who presided gave a wonderful eulogy, filled with humor and love.

Then came the kicker.

As the service neared its end, a musician from Amarillo — Chuck Alexander — decided to play the great Neil Diamond hit “Sweet Caroline,” and he invited everyone to sing along. If we didn’t know the words, he said, you’ll know the refrain. Then he began. The song is played at every Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park and is popular among Sox fans.

When we got to the refrain, everyone in the church sanctuary belted out “Sweet Caroline!” … and then followed that with the “bom, bom, bom” contained in the song. What a great moment!

As God is my witness, I am certain there couldn’t possibly have been a dry eye in the room as we sang that song to honor our friend. I also am certain as surely as I am typing these words that there were as many tears of joy as there were of sadness. My own eyes were drenched with tears, but it wasn’t a sad moment for me. I was laughing and crying at the same damn time!

I walked away from that service thinking one thought only. That was a true celebration of a life well-lived. If only we all could bring such joy to those who we meet along our journey on this good Earth.

national news

Birthright citizenship must stay

Donald J. Trump oozes hypocrisy from every single pore of his overfed, orange-tinged body, which allows me today to take aim at this idea he is pushing to do away with birthright citizenship.

Two of Trump’s wives were immigrants. Ivana and Melania. For the sake of this blog post, I will look briefly at these facts about the children Donald and Ivana brought into this world.

Don Jr. was born in 1977; Ivanka was born in 1981; Eric came along in 1984.

Ivana Trump became a naturalized U.S. citizen until 1988. You know what that means? Hey, I’ll tell you. It means that Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric were citizens simply because they were born here. Their mother was a citizen of a European nation.

As a social media meme suggests, why don’t we revoke their citizenship first in the event this nutty, outrageous and patently stupid idea becomes law?

I have some good news for those, such as me, who want to keep that citizenship clause on the books. Removing it would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment contains the clause that declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Does that mean anyone? Those born within the legal boundaries of this country become U.S. citizens immediately upon birth?

It doesn’t get any clearer than that. As for Trump, he is without shame or sense of the hypocrisy that drips from his idiotic self.

local news, media news

Words of wisdom live on

AMARILLO — The late Gene Howe, one-time publisher of the Amarillo Globe-Times, coined a phrase that ought to become the credo for every media organization that is still standing.

It is engraved on the side of the newspaper building and it reads: A newspaper can be forgiven for lack of wisdom but never for lack of courage.

The newspaper no longer occupies the building you see with this post and they have torn down the sign denoting the company that operated there for decades.

I drove by a couple of times this weekend and I was filled with sadness at the emptiness of the space. Some windows have been broken and they have put plywood in the sills to keep the weather out.

The company that owns what is left of the newspaper moved the few remaining staffers out of there a few years ago. They work in a bank tower in the downtown district. I haven’t had the guts to darken the office’s door since they moved in. I don’t know what I would say. No one there would care that I once worked for the paper, running an opinion section that used to provide daily commentary on issues important to the community.

They do not have an opinon section any longer. Commentary? Leadership? Courage? Pffttt! It’s all gone, man!

A new dynamic now fills the void left by the virtual demise of the daily newspaper. The Internet is the medium of choice. Newspapers such as the one where I worked joyfully for nearly 18 years haven’t  yet figured out how to compete in this new age. Certainly not the parent company that once ran the Globe-News. The Morris Communication brain trust — and I use the term with caution — gave up the fight and sold the papers for a song to another company.

I don’t know what will become of the building that once symbolized a great media organization. I won’t lose any sleep over it. Still, seeing that engraved message on the side of a building where such words meant someting important does leave me wistful.

And, yes … quite sad.

local news, media news

I am the ‘newspaper guy’

AMARILLO — I attended the memorial service of a dear friend today, schmoozed with plenty of folks I once knew back in the old days and came away with a strange loss of identity.

You see, I once called this bustling city of 200,000 people my home, My wife and I lived here for 23 years, longer than in any community during our 51 years of married life together. Therefore, I was a bit puzzled by a seeming lack of recognition from some of those folks I once knew.

When I said the words “newspaper guy” or “Amarillo Globe-News,” I could see the light bulbs flicker on in their minds. “Oh, yeaaahhhh!” came the response. “I remember you now! Hey, welcome back home. Man, we sure could use you around here these days,” they would say … or words to that effect.

There you have it. I am identified by the job I performed for a newspaper that once was a significant presence in the lives of residents throughout the Texas Panhandle. It isn’t any longer. The Globe-News exists today mostly in the memories of those who subscribed to the morning Daily News, the evening Globe-Times or the Sunday News-Globe. Many of them read all three papers, given that they were produced by separate newsgathering and opinion page staffs.

Those days are long gone. Forever, too. The paper — if we can call it that — is merely a dimming shadow of its once-glorious self. The Globe-Times won the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service in 1961, print journalism’s top prize.

What does any of this have to do with me? Not much, truth be told. I wasn’t part of that glorious past. I was part of a past that meant more to people’s lives than the present does or that the future ever will. We weren’t a great newspaper when I joined it in 1995, but we were solid and we damn sure reported the news thoroughly throughout the region.

What I didn’t realize is how much the job I did for the community melded itself into my identity. I will not complain about it. I am just realizing it out loud for the first time.

It’s all very strange.

local news

Returning … only to say good bye

AMARILLO — I think it was Boone Pickens — the late, legendary oil tycoon — who once told me he didn’t return often to Amarillo “except to attend funerals.

It’s weird saying so, but I am finding myself in the same boat as the former Amarillo resident. My wife and I lived here for 23 years. She’s gone now and I don’t come back much these days. I have returned to attend a memorial service for a friend we both new. Kathy Anne is here in spirit, while I am here in the flesh.

And the sad truth is that my life has relocated from the Panhandle to the Metroplex. Which means that I don’t return often to the community where my wife and I forged a wonderful life.

We made a lot of friends during our time here. I reckon I’ll see many of them as we all bid farewell to a woman who also cultivated many friendships during her 70-something years on the good Earth. I don’t want my return here to revolve only around funeral services. It seems that is the inveviable trend my life will follow.

Whatever. I have returned this weekend. Hope to hug a lot of folks before I head back home.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience