Category Archives: national news

national news

Trump sows fear in election system

Donald J. Trump’s strategy against Joseph R. Biden is coming into sharper focus each day.

He wants to sow seeds of doubt and fear in the very election system that produced the Greatest Electoral Fluke of All Time in 2016.

He says if Biden wins it will be because the 2020 election will be “rigged.” There you have it, ladies and gentlemen of each county in America. Your work isn’t worth a damn, according to Donald Trump.

These folks all swear an oath to protect and defend the same Constitution that the president swore an oath to protect. They do so at the local election level. They are county clerks and their deputies. They work diligently to ensure free, fair and secure elections.

Trump says a Biden victory — which I consider a blessed event — will be tainted by whom or what? He doesn’t say. Just that it’ll be “rigged.” Recall he said the same thing in 2016 in advance of that election, suggesting that Hillary Clinton was seeking to rig the result. She wasn’t. The result turned into one of the biggest Electoral College shockers in any of our lifetimes.

Trump has ripped another page out of that same playbook by suggesting Joe Biden is seeking to rig an election. In truth, as I see it, Trump is the one who is seeking to rig it. He wants to suppress voter turnout by suppressing mail-in balloting. Intelligence officials already have warned that Russians are working to interfere in the 2020 race just as they did in 2016; they want Trump to win. Why? Trump won’t speak ill of his pal Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump is trading on fear and loathing in a time when the nation needs unity, comity and a search for common ground. Trump won’t acknowledge what it painfully obvious, that Americans are continuing to die from the COVID crisis. Why is that? Because of Trump’s incompetence. It’s as crystal clear as that.

Trump is mounting a major diversion in seeking to cast doubt on the electoral process that is unfolding.

He is a disgrace.

national news

WH used as political prop

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Donald Trump pulled it off.

He managed to violate federal law, flout political custom and turn the White House — along with the Marines on duty at the presidential residence — into political props.

He accepted his party’s nomination to a second term as president. He had that crowd gathered on the lawn. They were generally mask free and they ignored social distancing recommendations. They cheered Trump’s applause lines.

Hey, it’s a given that Trump would lie through his teeth. Not much to say about that at this moment … likely later.

The use of the White House, the Marines, one of his daughters who serves as a government official is a blatant violation of the Hatch Act, the law that bans federal employees from engaging in political activities.

But … will it matter? Will there be an outrage by voters who have seen and heard enough from Trump? Probably not.

This misuse of the White House is galling at every level imaginable. The flags, the Trump-Pence campaign signs in front of our house. All of this while we are fighting a still-losing battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

We aren’t supposed to condone this kind of abuse. I certainly don’t. Donald Trump, though, doesn’t give a damn about any of this. He demonstrates his contempt for the law, for tradition and for time-honored political custom damn near daily.

He did so again with that hideous political spectacle at the White House. As a part-owner of that building, I object in the most strenuous terms possible!

national news

Why do we care?

A friend of mine in Amarillo posted a question on Facebook that wonders whether we should care about what pro football, hockey, baseball, soccer and basketball players think about police brutality.

I told him “I do” care. A lot.

Pro athletes are protesting the shooting of a young black man in Kenosha, Wis., who police shot at seven times, hitting him with four rounds in the back. The young man, Jacob Blake, is paralyzed; it might be permanent paralysis.

Meanwhile, a white teenager allegedly killed two protesters who were marching for justice in the earlier mentioned case. He walked past police officers with an assault rifle. He was allowed to go home that night. He surrendered the next day. I won’t mention the alleged shooter’s name because I don’t want to give him any more publicity than he deserves.

The first incident involved a man who was fleeing the cops. He had turned his back on them. They shot him with a Taser, then with a pistol. The other one involved a young parading down the street brandishing a rifle, yet no police officer thought to question him.

Again, the first man is black; the second man is white.

That is why the pro athletes are upset. It is why they are boycotting the games they are supposed to play.

It also is why their voices are worth hearing and heeding as they seek justice in an unjust world.

national news

Hoping to unpack all the lies

This is likely an unreasonable expectation, but I will express it anyway.

It is my hope, at least, that those who want to see Donald Trump defeated for re-election can unpack all the lies he has told during his brief time in politics and expose the man who told them as a fraud who is unfit for the office he occupies.

Take it away, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Trump no doubt will pile a load of more lies onto his huge pile of prevarication tonight when he speaks to the faithful scattered on the White House lawn. The location of his partisan speech, of course, creates a whole other set of ethical — and maybe legal — concerns.

I have chosen to look away from Trump tonight when he accepts the Republican presidential nomination. He lies incessantly and relentlessly. The GOP convention has ignored the multiple crises that are enveloping the nation: the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter rebellion, climate change, the Gulf Coast hurricane.

Trump will tell us it’s all going just swell. It ain’t.

He will lie repeatedly tonight. He will seek to portray Joe Biden as a tool of the far left, which of course is utter nonsense.

I expect there to be some serious examination of the lies Trump has told and will tell again and again. I have no hope of persuading the committed cultists who have bought into the baloney that Trump dispenses.

It’s those undecided voters, or fence-straddlers who need to be persuaded that the nation cannot afford another four years of this individual’s lying.

There is just so much to unpack, to reveal, to expose. Good grief. It might be too much for the voting public to consume.

I do want to see this effort unfold that seeks to reveal finally the fraudulent nature of this man’s political existence.

I turn it over to you, Vice President Biden and Sen. Harris.

local news, national news, political news

Mind made up: going to vote early

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I will vote early, but certainly not often, which would be corrupt, yes?

My wife and I have talked about whether we should vote early in this election cycle. We both have decided that, by golly, yes we will.

It gives me the nervous jerks to admit such a thing. I have written often over many years about my aversion to early voting in elections when I can vote on Election Day. This year, under certain circumstances, we have decided we’re going to avoid the crowd and vote early at a polling place to be announced soon by Collin County election officials. My concern centers on the fear that the candidate who gets my vote might mess up between the time I cast the ballot and when they count the ballots.

The coronavirus pandemic has frightened me sufficiently to forgo my usual Election Day routine.

I am not sure whether we’ll have vote by mail in Texas. Our state attorney general, Republican Ken Paxton, is vowing to resist voting in that fashion. He has swilled the Donald Trump Kool-Aid that makes him think all-mail voting is corrupt. It isn’t.

If Texas is not going to allow voting by mail, then I intend to vote early to ensure that my ballot gets logged in and that my wife and I can have our voices heard on who we want elected president of the United States.

Spoiler alert: It ain’t Donald J. Trump! It will be Joseph R. Biden Jr.!

The president is seeking to undermine the integrity and efficiency of our state and local election systems. He keeps harping on the specious and phony threat of corruption.

Our household intends to vote early to protect ourselves against exposure to the killer virus from a big Election Day crowd. I don’t expect Texas to join those states that have used all-mail voting with great success. We do a good job in Texas, though, in conducting early voting.

So … early voting will have to do.

local news, national news

Power of prayer works again?

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I never have been one to dismiss out of hand the power of prayer.

I pray all the time. I did so, along with millions of other Americans, that Hurricane Laura would spare our friends living in the Golden Triangle region in the southeast corner of Texas.

Guess what happened? Laura stormed ashore in Cameron, La., a good bit east of the Golden Triangle. I don’t wish bad things to happen to anyone caught in the middle of nature’s fury, and I have continued to offer prayer to those who were hammered by the Category 4 force of the killer storm.

The National Weather Service issued a most unusual warning prior to Laura reaching shore. The NWS said the storm would produce an “unsurvivable” surge of Gulf of Mexico water. Unsurvivable? Yep, that’s what they said.

Then I heard this morning that the storm surge wasn’t as monstrous as the NWS projected. Did the prayer work for those good folks, too? Well, suffice to say that the answer is one that cannot withstand empirical examination. You either believe it did … or you don’t. I choose to believe in the power of prayer.

Hey, I’ll take all the credit I deserve for that one. So should the rest of us. To be sure, there have been at least two fatalities reported in the past few hours, so the storm has inflicted terrible misery on the families and friends of at least two individuals.

I also should point out that the NWS wasted no time in retiring the name “Laura” from its roster of future storm names. The storm was strong and fearsome enough to join the ranks of Katrina, Rita, Ike, Maria and Harvey — among others — in the pantheon of retired storm names we’ll never see again during hurricane season.

Speaking on behalf of our friends in the Golden Triangle, I want to extend a heartfelt, sincere and profoundly authentic sigh of relief that they averted the worst of what Mother Nature can dish out.

national news

Errors of omission aplenty

Republican National Convention speakers have been criticizing their Democratic convention colleagues for what they have called an egregious error of omission.

Democrats, they say, should have talked about the violence that has erupted in many of our cities as Americans have protested police conduct in the wake of the deaths of African-Americans.

That’s a fair point. The DNC should have spoken to that issue at their virtual convention a week ago.

However, let’s not let the RNC escape similar critiques of its message. The GOP that has nominated Donald Trump and Mike Pence for a second term has yet to address the terrible heartache, misery and death associated with the COVID crisis. Yes, they have acknowledged the existence of the crisis. They have said nothing about how it has affected the loved ones of those who have died or the economic collapse that has occurred as a result of the pandemic.

Therein, I submit, exists the error of omission on the Republicans’ part in this political game of Can You Top This?

Republicans continue to portray Donald Trump’s initial pandemic response as courageous, forceful, bold, proactive … all that happy horse dookey. It was none of that. They know it as well as you and I know it. Do not expect them to come clean by the time the convention wraps up.

I just want Democratic nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to remind voters of the start choice awaiting them. Do they want more of the same chaotic incompetence or a return to compassion, empathy and actual presidential leadership?

You know already where I stand.

national news

Bipartisan chops serve Biden well

Jeff Flake once served in the U.S. Senate. He is a Republican and reportedly a self-proclaimed proud “conservative” Republican at that.

He is going to support Democrat Joe Biden’s bid to become president of the United States.

Former Sen. Flake is not alone among Republicans who are backing the former vice president in his bid to unseat Donald Trump from the White House.

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former House member, spoke at the Democratic National Convention. So did former GOP Rep. Susan Molinari and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. They all are principled Republicans who believe that the president is unfit for office. They want him defeated.

It’s a bit of overstatement to declare that Joe Biden is uniquely qualified by virtue of his many friends on the Republican side of the chasm that splits the parties. Other politicians have been able to reach across the aisle when the need arose. Presidents Bush 41 and 43 did so, as did President Clinton, President Johnson and President Reagan. President Obama had limited success in that regard, but he did have Vice President Biden at his side to pave the way on occasion.

I mention this because it appears to me that Biden well might be able to harvest a good bit of GOP support as he continues his campaign against Donald Trump. We all have noticed occasional cracks in the GOP armor, with Sen. Mitt Romney being openly critical of Trump, as have Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Of course we cannot know how they will vote when the time comes. The Constitution allows Americans to vote in secret. Indeed, I often find it intrusive even to ask a politician how they intend to vote. These decisions ought to be intensely personal.

I remain committed to the notion that good government requires bipartisan compromise and the constant search for common ground. Joe Biden’s lengthy public service career is full of examples of how he has sought commonality with politicians with whom he disagrees. Such a record would serve him — and the nation — well if he becomes president of the United States.

Joe Biden’s bipartisan street cred is beyond dispute, which makes him — among many reasons too numerous to count — preferable to the incumbent in this presidential election.

national news

From dark to light

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Joe Biden vows to lead us from the darkness into the light. He says Donald Trump has steered the nation into the proverbial darkness through his incompetence, incoherence and lack of empathy.

Donald Trump says Joe Biden’s policies will result in a loss of guns, God, freedom … and maybe even our very lives.

Who’s version do you prefer? Well, I am all in with Joe Biden. I did manage to watch a lot of this past week’s Democratic National Convention. I could take only one night of the RNC, so my comments about the GOP convention will be based on that first night.

I heard a dark and foreboding tale coming from the likes of Don Jr., his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle and assorted other fans/toadies/lackeys of the president, all of whom told bald-faced lies about the character of the individual they are facing in the upcoming presidential election.

They are trying to paint Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris with the far-left progressive/socialist paint brush.

What about them? Let’s see: Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972; he made friends with Republicans and Democrats; he served as chair or ranking member on the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees; he crafted legislation that protected women and sought to toughen federal laws against certain crimes. He also endorsed the Defense of Marriage Act, which chaps progressives’ hides. He was in a position to lead efforts to take away our guns, but didn’t do it. Nor did he do anything that diminished the role of religion in people’s lives.

As vice president, he helped craft the Affordable Care Act, he led the fight against the Ebola pandemic and sought greater accountability from government agencies.

Man, that’s scary stuff.

What about Sen. Harris? She was a career prosecutor. She served as California attorney general before being elected to the Senate in 2016. A prosecutor and an AG? Does that speak to a career aimed at disarming Americans or taking God out of our homes?

The RNC no doubt is going to paint Biden and Harris as monstrous cretins. They’re both well-educated, seasoned in the mechanics of government and are battle-tested.

I’ll get to this God matter in a blog post in the near future. For now I want merely to challenge the assertion that Joe Biden is beholden to far-left ideologues. Indeed, for Donald Trump to suggest any sort of fealty to ideology — given his own penchant for tilting toward right-wing TV talking heads — is laughable on its face.

Except that I ain’t laughing. Neither should anyone else.