Category Archives: national news

education news, local news, medical news, national news

Knock off threats to schools, Mr. POTUS

Donald J. Trump is now putting heat on governors to reopen public school systems, much like he tried to browbeat houses of worship leaders into packing pews in time for Easter and threatened governors to reopen their states … or else.

There is no “or else” for the president, given that he has no singular authority to tell governors how to run their states as they cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now he’s going after them on school reopening.

I found this quote from a former member of Congress, a guy I know, but who I haven’t spoken to in more than two decades. Former Rep. Nick Lampson writes: School re-openings must be based on science not the ineptitude of Donald Trump. We have a collective responsibility to protect the interests of America’s youth. Expecting kids to spend 8 hours a day in close quarters during a pandemic and threatening to defund public schools like some sort of authoritarian is not the sort of leadership we need in the White House.

Here in Texas, and specifically in Collin County, our school leaders are giving parents the option of sending their children back to the classroom or keep them at home in a sort of hybrid learning environment. Texas’s infection rate is soaring. We do not want our children exposed needlessly just because Donald Trump wants schools to reopen their classrooms.

While I am on the subject, Donald and Melania Trump have a son in school. Are they sending Barron back to class? I am not going to make the youngster an issue; I merely am asking the question to ascertain what kind of parental decisions the first couple are making with regard to their own son.

As for the rest of us, Donald Trump ought to let governors and the public educators who deserve praise and not threats decide how to handle their unique situations.

national news

Wondering about post-Trump era

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 REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger

I admit it freely and without reservation: My mind tends to wander during its idle moments.

My wife and I took a dip in the pool today to fend off the 100-degree heat and while soaking myself I began to ponder the post-Donald Trump era in U.S. politics.

First I shall stipulate, as if it needs stipulation, that I hope that era begins in January 2021 and not January 2025. We have an election coming up and as of this moment, the trend is looking good for the challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

But … you know what they say about a week being like a lifetime in politics. Still, I cannot turn the mind-idle off.

What would happen if Donald Trump is staring at the reality of losing an election, that Biden has racked up enough Electoral College votes to win? Does he pick up the phone, call Biden and wish him well? Does he say, “You fought hard and well, Mr. President-elect. I will do what I can to assure a smooth transition”?

Then we have the issue of where Trump would go. One of these days — and I damn sure hope it’s soon — he’ll walk to the helicopter on the White House lawn and fly away. Will he go to Mar-a-Lago, Fla., or to Bedminster, or to Trump Tower? What will he and Melania discuss on their first full day as civilians?

This question perhaps is most maddening of all: Where does Donald Trump plan to build a presidential library? Even more puzzling is what in the world is going to be his overarching theme? Economic revival? Fighting disease? Seeking to kick illegal immigrants out of the country? Ending the Affordable Care Act? Ridding the nation of anything associated with President Barack Obama?

Former presidents often receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama bestowed it on Presidents Bush 41 and Bill Clinton. He didn’t do the same for President Bush 43, but I wish he had done so. Would a President Biden honor Donald Trump in this fashion? Hah! Not a chance, given the defamatory epithets that Trump has hurled at Biden.

Trump vowed to be a “different” kind of president. I suppose you could say he’s delivered on that promise in spades. I don’t know what kind of former president he will become. All I am hoping for at this moment of idle time is that we’ll know sooner rather than later.

national news

Where are the GOP ‘heroes’?

What you see here is a Twitter message fired off by U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, the freshman Utah Republican who, during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, cast the only GOP vote to convict Trump on an abuse of power allegation brought by the House of Representatives.

Now, Trump has commuted the 40-month federal prison sentence of Roger Stone, POTUS’s longtime political ally and personal friend.

Romney so far has emerged as the only Republican in either congressional chamber with a semblance of a spine. His tweet condemning the commutation speaks volumes about why Trump’s decision is so terribly self-serving and dangerous.

I am thinking now of something the great journalist Carl Bernstein, who covered the Watergate scandal in the 1970s for the Washington Post, recently said about how that scandal unfolded, leading eventually to President Nixon’s resignation.

Bernstein talked about the Republican “heroes” who emerged to challenge the president directly. They stood on the principle that no one is above the law and that they, in good conscience, could not support the GOP president who had covered up his campaign’s participation in the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices.

Those heroes, Bernstein said, are what brought an end to what became known as “our long national nightmare.”

Where in the name of political heroism are the rest of the GOP congressional caucus when it concerns this president?

Sen. Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, is standing alone against the cult of personality that Donald Trump has created?

national news

Oh, for an end to the chaos

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I told you this would happen.

Yes, I called it. I will stand by what I said would be the result of Donald John Trump serving as president of the United States.

It would be that he would bring chaos and confusion from the campaign trail straight into the Oval Office; that his ignorance of government would be on full display almost daily; that his background of self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment and narcissism would become evident in a man with not a single moment of public service experience.

Many of you didn’t listen to what your humble blogger said would occur. Had there been a 40,000-vote flip in three critical states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — we would be free of this madness.

And I do mean “madness.”

Donald Trump’s commuting of Roger Stone’s federal prison sentence because he is so very loyal to Trump wouldn’t have happened. We wouldn’t have witnessed the entire array of bizarre rulings, policy pronouncements and the revolving door spinning wildly as officials are fired/resigning.

All of this was visible and predictable the moment Donald Trump rode down the escalator to declare his intention to run for president. To be honest, I thought in the moment he was performing some sort of publicity stunt. Silly me. That’s what I got, I guess, for thinking.

I believe firmly we cannot afford any more of this chaos. I want a change in our national leadership, but that’s no surprise to readers of this blog. I want to elect a politician who (a) knows the Constitution, (b) appreciates the limits of executive power in our government and (c) can express authentic empathy for the pain we are enduring.

national news, political news

Wishing media could dial back Biden’s poll reporting

The media are having a field day reporting on Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s spectacular poll ratings against Donald J. Trump Sr.

Biden is leading Trump by double digits, the media tell us. Biden is leading Trump in virtually all the critical “swing states,” they report. Biden might already have enough Electoral College votes in the bank to assure his election in November, the reporting continues.

I want the media to dial it back. Why? Because it is beginning to fill me with a sense of hope that might not hold up as we head down the stretch toward Election Day.

My memory is vivid on some things. One of those matters involves what the media reported at this stage of the 2016 campaign. They said Hillary Clinton would cruise to an easy election.

I bought that narrative four years ago. I was so confident that I attended an election-night watch party with my wife at some friends’ house in Amarillo. We went there expecting Hillary Clinton to make a victory speech upon getting the concession call from Donald Trump.

Uhh, it didn’t happen. My worst political nightmare came to pass on election night 2016.

I am acutely aware that Joe Biden doesn’t carry nearly the negative baggage that Clinton did against Trump. I also am aware that much of Trump’s message that sold against Clinton is hitting the deck with a thud against Biden.

We have an economy in collapse, the nation’s response to the pandemic has been disastrous. Trump is campaigning against his own record as president, if you allow me to parse the rhetoric he keeps using.

I know the media have a role to play and a job to do. Part of all that is to tell us what the polling is telling us about the race as it develops. It’s just making me nervous.

military news, national news

Gen. Milley: Confederates were ‘traitors’

U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley laid it on the line before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.

He has staked out a position regarding the naming of Army posts after Confederate generals that is diametrically opposed to the position taken by the commander in chief.

On these matters, I will stand with the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman every … single … time.

Milley told committee members that the officers who signed up with the Confederacy were traitors to the nation and they violated the sacred oath they took when they were commissioned as American military officers.

What’s more, Milley said he supports a top-to-bottom review of the 10 Army posts named after these traitors and pledged to work to ensure the nation does right by the places that today house and train American warriors.

Of course, that is opposite of what Donald Trump wants. He said just recently, via Twitter: “The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.”

I won’t quarrel with what Trump said about how those bases “trained and deployed” these heroic Americans. That isn’t the point of this discussion. The point is about whether it is appropriate to commemorate the memories of men who committed an act of treason — which is the highest crime one can commit against our government, which carries a death sentence under federal law.

As Gen. Milley noted, “The American Civil War … was an act of treason at the time against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the U.S. Constitution — and those officers turned their backs on their oath. Now, some have a different view of that. Some think it’s heritage. Others think it’s hate.”

You may count me as one who believes in the latter description. Our nation fought the Civil Ware because the Confederacy wanted to retain the “states’ right” to keep human beings in bondage.

Isn’t that the definition of “hate”?

national news

Obsession with Obama seeks to conceal hideous reality

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ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Donald J. Trump’s obsession with Barack H. Obama is beginning to look increasingly like a deflection of our attention from a hideous truth about the current presidential administration.

It is that Trump has presided over the most corrupt executive government branch at least since the era of Richard M. Nixon. Indeed, there is an argument being made that the corruption level of the Trump administration dwarfs what we saw during the Nixon administration.

More of Trump’s men have gone to prison than those who served time during Nixon’s time.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to insist that President Obama presided over the “most corrupt” administration in U.S. history. Of course, and this is no surprise, he seeks to tie Vice President Joe Biden to what he alleges was the corruption of the Obama years. You get that, right? I mean, Biden is about to be nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Trump this fall and at this moment Biden appears headed for a smashing victory.

We have a former national security adviser who has pleaded guilty to lying to authorities; a former Trump friend and “fixer” has just been hauled back to the slammer for violating the terms of his house arrest; other campaign officials have been cloistered behind bars; that includes the guy who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Trump flails away saying that it’s all a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” It is neither of those things. Trump has presided over an administration fraught with criminal activity … not to mention scandals involving all manner of accusations.

His defense? To deflect attention by suggesting that President Obama and Vice President Biden — of all people — sat atop the most corrupt administration in history.

Oh, and how many people were indicted or served prison time during the eight years of Obama’s time in office? None.

national news

Once again, about those tax returns

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I guess we can set aside much hope that today’s Supreme Court ruling means we’ll get a look at Donald John Trump’s tax returns prior to the November presidential election.

The court issued a 7-2 ruling that said presidents aren’t above the law, clearing the way for a Manhattan, N.Y., district attorney to pursue Trump’s tax returns.

Why is this a big … deal?

First of all, it means that the DA, Cyrus Vance Jr., will be able to present the returns to a grand jury, which is bound by secrecy provisions under state law. The grand jury is looking into whether Trump violated any crime involving his business holdings.

Eventually the nation will get a look, I suppose. Trump’s team is pretty adept at deception, diversion and delay. I expect the legal eagles working for Trump to employ all the tactics it can to delay this legal proceeding.

That all said, the public deserves a look at those returns.

Trump promised to release them. He made the promise while campaigning for the presidency. He has since choked on the pledge. Presidential candidates dating back to Jimmy Carter have released their tax returns as a matter of routine; it was a post-Watergate reform that became common practice … then along came Donald Trump.

Why do we deserve to see those returns? We need to know whether Trump is as rich as he claims to be; we deserve to know how much he pays in taxes, given that he now has a voice in what we all pay the government; we deserve to know whether he has foreign investments that might interfere with policy decisions, such as whether he deals with Russian oligarchs … right?

I’ve been yammering for those returns since before Trump got elected. They should become part of the public domain if only because they belong to the nation’s leading elected public official. He makes pronouncements and sets policies affecting the public. Therefore, the public deserves to know all about the individual who sits at the top of our government’s chain of command.

We have inched a bit closer to that reality occurring. Although I am not going to hold my breath waiting for it. I’ll just keep yammering for those returns’ release.

national news

What? POTUS goes after his Senate pal?

Donald J. “Whiner in Chief” Trump is so darn angry at the Supreme Court that he is now taking aim at one of his closest pals in the U.S. Senate.

Trump just can’t get past the notion that the high court said he isn’t above the law. He now wants Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham to go after the court, to stand up for the president.

Trump’s Twitter tirade has some folks wondering: Is the love affair between Trump and Graham over? I have no clue about that. I just am flabbergasted as usual by Trump’s tirade via Twitter over a court ruling that illustrates the value of the separation of powers between branches of government.

And once again Trump has decided to criticize his immediate predecessor, President Obama. He said in a tweet: “We have a totally corrupt previous Administration, including a President and Vice President who spied on my campaign, AND GOT CAUGHT…and nothing happens to them. This crime was taking place even before my election, everyone knows it, and yet all are frozen stiff with fear.” Then he adds: “No Republican Senate Judiciary response.”

Unbelievable.

national news

Would POTUS hide a positive result from us?

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It is fair to ask, given Donald Trump’s penchant for prevarication, to wonder how he might handle a positive test result on the COVID-19 virus.

My wandering mind asks: Is it at all possible that Donald Trump would seek to hide from the public a test — on himself — that came up positive?

I ask only because I distrust Trump’s ability or willingness to divulge the full truth were it to become necessary to tell us grim news about his own health. I don’t want to think he would hide that information from us, but I am pulled in that direction only because of his long-standing record of lying, of evasion, of deflection.

He does this at every turn, takes every opportunity to lie when all he has to do is tell us the truth. Trump has told us about his astonishing good health. I am forced to believe that anything that tells us something different wouldn’t be true to his own constant boasting.

I don’t want Donald Trump to fall ill. I also do not want him to hide it from us if he tests positive for a virus that poses a serious threat to the president’s very life. His record as a liar makes me wonder.