Monthly Archives: September 2016

International news, political news

Blog is taking wing … so to speak

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Syrian internally displaced people walk in the Atme camp, along the Turkish border in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, on March 19, 2013. The conflict in Syria between rebel forces and pro-government troops has killed at least 70,000 people, and forced more than one million Syrians to seek refuge abroad. AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILIC (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)

I don’t consider full-time blogging to be actual work.

It’s more like therapy for me. It keeps me engaged to the best of my ability, which I suppose depends on whether you agree with the opinions expressed in this forum.

So, when I decide to take a vacation, I like taking High Plains Blogger with me. Where I go with my wife, the laptop comes along and the blog keeps spewing out musings on this and/or that.

OK. So, here we go.

My wife, myself and the blog are getting set to take wing.

We’re heading soon for Germany and The Netherlands. We have friends in Bavaria — the pretty region of Germany — and in The Netherlands we intend to see. I’m going to get caught up with these folks, one of whom I met on a journalist field trip to Taipei, Taiwan in 2010, the others I met while traveling through Israel on a month-long Rotary International Group Study Exchange trip in 2009.

I have a couple of burning questions I’m going to ask people I meet during our stay in Western Europe.

*I want to know about the Middle East refugee situation in both countries. We keep hearing on this side of The Pond about the “flood” of refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria. What has been the impact of their arrival? Is it the “crisis” that we’ve been told it is? And what is the state of the nationalist fervor that appears to be building, particularly in Germany?

*The second question is a bit more straightforward. What’s the feeling in Europe about the state of the U.S. presidential election that’s going to pick up a serious head of steam. Particularly, what do the Europeans think of Donald J. Trump’s nomination by the Republican Party to be its candidate for president of the United States? I will do my level best to set my own bias aside as I glean the views of our German and Dutch hosts. Rest assured: We’ll talk also about Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There is likely to be some more local color I’d like to provide as well.

Neither my wife and I have been to Germany or The Netherlands — although we did stop once in Frankfurt, Germany to change planes en route home from Athens in 2001. I don’t count airport stops, you know?

I am anxious to see my friends. I also am anxious to enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of cultures that are much older than ours.

What’s more, I am anxious to obtain — to the extent I am able — a broader world view of the chaos that’s about to unfold in my own country as we make up our minds on who’s going to become the next Leader of the Free World.

Come to think of it, I might even ask Europeans whether they hold the U.S. president in such high regard.

national news, political news

‘Party of Lincoln’ … indeed

donald-trump-prayer-shawl

I cannot fathom what transpired today in that church in Detroit.

Donald J. Trump, of all people, is now seeking to don the mantle as the nominee of “the party of Abraham Lincoln.”

Yes, indeed. The Republicans’ presidential nominee — the guy who’s been endorsed by white supremacist David Duke — now seeks to make nice with African-Americans.

It was an amazing thing to see, Trump speaking to the black congregants seated before him.

“Our nation is too divided. We talk past each other, not to each other, and those who seek office do not do enough to step into the community and learn what is going on,” Trump said.

“I’m here today to learn so that we can together remedy injustice in any form, and so we can also remedy economics so African-American communities can benefit economically through jobs and income.”

Amazing, yes? This is the very same fellow who declared that African-Americans are enrolled in inferior schools, who live in neighborhoods that are less safe than combat zones in Afghanistan. He has infuriated minorities of all demographic groups with his incendiary rhetoric and by his abject failure to condemn in the strongest possible language any comments of support from infamous former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/294401-trump-claims-party-of-lincoln-mantle-in-speech-at-black

Now he wants voters to believe he is going to unite Americans, that he intends to do right by all of our citizens.

Trump steps into a church, makes a speech and then disappears. And that is supposed to be a demonstration of a politician who vows to step “into the community and learn what is going on”?

Unbelievable.

State news

Texas is shedding its ‘express lane’ execution process?

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death chamber

Texans love to proclaim “We’re No. 1!”

Well, OK, maybe not all Texans. A lot of us do, though.

One area of particular pride has been in the number and rate of executions carried out on those convicted of capital crimes.

For the record, that notion makes me decidedly not proud of Texas.

Get a load of this: The state has gone 148 days without executing someone. That’s almost a record. Is this where I can cheer?

http://fusion.net/story/342719/texas-death-penalty-execution-halt/?utm_campaign=ThisIsFusion&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social

Pablo Vasquez was the most recent inmate to be executed. Despite the hiatus that has gone through the entire summer, though, Texas remains the hands-down leader among the states in executing capital criminals. We put ’em down more than the next top six states combined.

There’s even a joke about how the Texas death chamber in Livingston has an “express lane.”

This is not a source of pride for me.

I declared a couple of years ago that I oppose capital punishment. My opposition surely has been tested over the years. When I read about the nature of some of the crimes committed, I admit to feeling a twinge that tells me, “That guy needed killin’.”

Then I remember what I’ve known all along. Capital punishment does not deter the commission of capital crimes. People still murder other people knowing they face the ultimate consequence if they are convicted of the crime for which they are accused.

Yes, I also have heard the rejoinder: But that guy, the one they executed, isn’t going to kill anyone any longer. Therefore, it does deter murder.

It’s an argument with no end. I’ll just revert to the empirical data that show how capital crimes take place with the perpetrator knowing full well the consequences of that action.

And then you have the issue that arises from time to time about people convicted wrongly and how the state — I’ll admit it’s rare — has killed innocent people. I believe one such case is too many.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted several executions this year, which surprises some of us who have watched the CCA routinely deny defendants’ pleas for clemency.

I’m not hopeful that the slowdown in the rate of executions portends a potential end to the practice in Texas. I’ll accept this hiatus and hope it lasts a good while longer.

It’s not likely Texas’s execution rate will be overtaken any time soon by another state. I wouldn’t mind one bit ceding this dubious No. 1 distinction.

national news

How is Trump able to make morality an issue?

gop-2016-trump

I’m perplexed and puzzled by so much of Republican Donald J. Trump’s nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Perhaps no set of issues baffles me more than Trump’s ability to make morality an issue to use against his opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Trump has gleefully told us that Bill Clinton’s misbehavior while he was president is relevant in this campaign. He questions why Hillary Clinton has stayed with him. He asserts some sort of moral authority that, to my way of thinking, he simply does not possess.

Trump is now married to his third wife. His first two marriages ended in divorce.

While his first marriage was ending, Trump actually boasted out loud and in public about his sexual infidelity. He has bragged about his extramarital sexual conquests.

I cannot help but think of these things when this guy campaigns for the presidency of the United States and throws out canards about a previous president’s misbehavior.

Someone needs to help me understand: How does this guy get away with this kind of duplicity?

Seriously. Can someone out there explain it me?

media news, national news, political news

Moderators become part of the campaign ’16 story

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Admit it if you dare.

You’ve been wondering who would moderate the three joint appearances scheduled with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican nominee Donald J. Trump.

Now we know.

Lester Holt of NBC will do the first one; ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper will co-moderate the second; Fox’s Chris Wallace gets the call for the third one.

This normally wouldn’t be a y-u-u-u-u-g-e deal, except for what happened in the first GOP gathering in 2015 when Trump bristled openly at the first question posed by Fox News’s Megyn Kelly, who had the “gall” to ask Trump about his previous statements about women. You know, the “fat pigs” stuff.

Trump didn’t like the question. Not only that, he kept up the feud through much of the GOP primary campaign, refusing to participate in a later event moderated by the same Megyn Kelly.

He demonstrated a preposterous level of petulance.

He made the media the issue, which plays well with the Republican base, given that they hate the media, too.

Moderators aren’t supposed to become part of a political story. This year they have been. Remember, too, when CNN’s Candy Crowley in 2012 corrected GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s assertion that President Obama didn’t refer to the Benghazi attack as an act of terror.

Oh, but this is a new era. Trump has ensured that the media will become part of the narrative because, as he discovered, the base of his party’s voters love gnawing on that red meat.

Will he go after Holt, or Raddatz, or Cooper or Wallace?

Or, will any of them provoke a fiery response with a question that Trump deems to be untoward?

Gosh, I’m getting all tingly now just waiting for it.

business news, national news, political news

Gov. Pence takes the lead on tax returns

tax-return-form

This just in: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is going to release his tax returns.

Meanwhile, the guy who heads the Republican Party’s presidential ticket, Donald J. Trump, continues to keep his tax returns away from public scrutiny.

Pence is running alongside Trump for the White House.

He told “Meet the Press” in remarks to be broadcast Sunday that he’s going to turn his tax returns loose for the public to inspect.

Oh, and what about Trump? “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd asked Pence. Trump will do so eventually, as soon as the Internal Revenue Service completes its audit.

Hold the phone, dude!

An IRS audit doesn’t preclude release of tax returns.

Once again, I shall state that Trump is refusing to do something that’s been customary for presidential candidates since 1976. No, there’s no law requiring release of the returns. It’s just been a bipartisan tradition that has its roots in the immediate post-Watergate era.

In 1976, Republican President Gerald Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter agreed to release their returns in reaction to the constitutional scandal that took down a president and sent others to prison.

I’m glad to see Gov. Pence doing the right thing.

Now …

How about the guy at the top of his ticket?

media news, national news, political news

Clinton stiff-arming of media needs to end

hillary and media

It’s safe to say — I truly believe — that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn’t feel “protected” by the so-called “liberal media.”

She doesn’t believe the media have given her a break in all her years in public life. Nor does she believe broadcast and print journalist Ajust stand around looking at their shoes when the subject of the myriad controversies come up regarding her life on the public stage.

Why else, do you suppose, does she keep the media at such a distance?

My response to all of that is: too bad, Mme. Secretary; it’s time you start letting the media do their job.

According to Politico, Clinton’s relationship with the media is about to undergo a fundamental change. I believe it’s for the better.

After Labor Day, the media will be allowed aboard “a ‘Stronger Together’-wrapped 737 from New York to Ohio to Iowa, and remain flying companions for the final stretch of the campaign.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-reporters-press-227700#ixzz4JD3z5zXd

Clinton distrusts the national media, believing that they have been unfair in covering her and her husband, the 42nd president of the United States. Until now, she has flown separately from event to event without the media aboard her campaign plane. She can afford the luxury of doing so, given the huge amount of campaign cash she has socked away.

She remains the favorite to win the election this year and become the nation’s 45th — and its first female — president.

But those of us in the media — and that includes those of us who used to work in this field full time — want her to speak to the public through the media. It’s been damn near a year since she had a full-blown news conference where she fields tough and probing questions from reporters.

I don’t need to lecture Clinton on this matter, but I’ll say it anyway: The media serve as the public’s eyes and ears on matters of public policy. Seeking the highest political office in the nation is of compelling public and national interest. The media are entrusted with reporting how these candidates seek to govern and the only way to get anything resembling a definitive answer is to ask them directly.

Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, to his credit, has been more accessible to the media than Clinton. Indeed, he’s gladly seized the spotlight as Clinton has been content in recent weeks to let Trump’s troubles dominate the news cycles.

Hillary Clinton certainly cannot govern this way if she’s elected. Nor should she be think she can continue to stiff-arm the media as she campaigns for the world’s most visible and powerful public office.

So, she thinks she’s been mistreated?

Get over it. Talk to us … through the media.

entertainment news, Sports news

Tim Tebow: baseball ‘stunt man’

th8BXAG3N7

I am fascinated by what I perceive to be a stunt being performed by one Tim Tebow, the former Heisman Trophy-winning college quarterback who couldn’t cut it in the National Football League.

He’s now trying to become a professional baseball player. He wants to play professionally a sport in which he hasn’t participated in since, oh, high school.

I keep wondering about a certain aspect of this fellow’s change of career plans: Does his celebrity status make him more marketable than his actual talent? And does that status as a media star prevent another, more deserving young athlete from obtaining a spot on a baseball team roster?

Do not misunderstand me. Tim Tebow appears to be a fine young man. He made news when he started kneeling after scoring touchdowns; he would say brief prayers of thanks to God, which endeared him to many God-fearing football fans.

I like that part of the young man’s character.

Then that persona took over. It made bigger than life in some people’s eyes. It followed him everywhere. NFL teams were criticized by some fans for cutting him from their roster because the fans perceived a bias against his devout religious faith.

Baloney! The guy’s pro football skills at quarterback don’t measure up. He’s a heck of an athlete. Tebow is a tremendous physical specimen. He’s built like a linebacker and he might have become a good defensive player, or perhaps a tight end.

Now we hear that at least two Major League Baseball teams are interested in this guy: the Atlanta Braves and the Colorado Rockies.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/report-two-mlb-teams-showing-interest-in-tim-tebow/ar-AAiqQEC?li=BBnb7Kz

It’s fair to ask: Is their interest based on what they see on the baseball field or is it based on how he might boost attendance at baseball games, given his celebrity status?

Remember when basketball legend Michael Jordan tried his hand at pro baseball? I remain convinced to this day that he was awarded a minor-league spot on the basis of his acclaim as a basketball player, denying someone else a spot who likely deserved it more.

Thus, are we talking about furthering another young man’s baseball career or allowing him to perform a publicity stunt?

legal news, national news, political news

Judge Garland’s future hangs in election balance

FILE - In this May 1, 2008, file photo, Judge Merrick B. Garland is seen at the federal courthouse in Washington. President Obama is expected to nominate Federal Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

Merrick Garland isn’t allowed to campaign actively for partisan political candidates.

You see, he must follow certain judicial canons that prohibit him from such activity.

I’m betting he’s chomping at the bit nonetheless.

Garland is the federal judge who has been nominated for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. President Obama made the nomination, only to run straight into a Republican roadblock erected by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who said the president shouldn’t get to fill the ninth seat on the court; that task should belong to the next president.

McConnell made that demand believing the next president would be a Republican. Then the GOP nominated Donald J. Trump. My gut tells me now that McConnell isn’t too keen on Trump, who I believe is going to lose the presidential election to Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That eventuality puts Garland back in the driver’s seat.

If Clinton wins, then McConnell well might feel the necessity to proceed with Judiciary Committee hearings and then a floor vote on Garland’s nomination during a lame-duck congressional session.

If Hillary Clinton is the next president, then it’s almost certain that she will nominate someone who is more to the left than the centrist Garland, who Obama chose because of his superb judicial temperament — and the fact that the Senate approved him overwhelmingly to a seat on the D.C. District Court in 1997.

There’s another calculation McConnell needs to make: Clinton’s victory well could swing the Senate’s balance of power back to the Democrats. And that makes it even more critical for the Republicans — who would run the Senate until the new folks take office in January — to at least exert some measure of control over the proceeding.

Yes, this election is important. Don’t you think?

national news, political news

Happy Labor Day weekend, y’all; now, get ready to rumble!

clinton and trump

This Labor Day weekend is going to be a special event for my wife and me.

Our wedding anniversary arrives on Sunday. It’s No. 45 for us. We’re having the time of our lives.

The holiday occurs on Monday.

It’s the unofficial “End of Summer.” Children are back in school. Life returns to some semblance of normal for millions of us.

And then …

We get to watch two individuals battle for the presidency of the United States of America. It won’t be pretty.

Let me revise that statement: This presidential campaign is going to be butt-ugly!

I’ve been watching this campaign intently for longer than I care to admit. I shall admit right along with many others that Donald J. Trump’s nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for president is arguably the most astonishing political event I’ve ever witnessed in my 66 years on the Good Earth.

I did not think it would happen. It did.

As for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, I once considered her to be destined to win the presidency in a way not seen since, oh, Dwight Eisenhower was destined to win in 1952.

That hasn’t happened, either. She’s still the favorite. She might become the prohibitive favorite by the time Election Day rolls around.

The two major-party candidates, though, are going to slug it out.

Some pundits are comparing the Clinton’s current strategy to Muhammad Ali’s tactic of leaning on the ropes and letting heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman punch himself out. By the eighth round of their fight in Zaire, Foreman was spent and Ali flattened him for a knockout.

The campaign will get uglier than it is at the moment — if that’s at all possible. They’re calling each other racists and bigots. Trump says Clinton lacks the “stamina” to do the job; Clinton says Trump’s temperament and lack of judgment make him “unfit” to run the greatest nation on Earth.

There’s plenty more of that in store for us.

Will the candidates tell us what they intend to do for us? Will they lay out some detail to explain how they’re going to work with Congress to govern effectively?

I expect neither of those things to happen.

Therefore, I intend to enjoy the dickens out of this Labor Day weekend.

The home stretch of this presidential election will be anything but a joy ride.