Monthly Archives: August 2017

environmental news, local news

We’re soaked around here, but is drought really over?

I’m going to have to do the virtually unheard of thing later today: At not quite the halfway point in August, I’m going to empty our rain gauge, which is full of water.

We’ve gotten slightly more than 5 inches of rain at our humble abode in southwest Amarillo so far this month. My wife and I empty it at the end of each month before waiting for more rainfall. This month has been a soaker, man!

The National Weather Service station near Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport reports that Amarillo has received 19 inches of rain year to date; that’s 5 inches more than normal and 6 inches more than we had at this time in 2016.

So, put another way, we’ve achieved just about our average annual amount of precipitation — and we still have more than four months to go in this calendar year.

All of this begs the question: Is the drought over?

I’ve heard it said about the crippling drought the High Plains endured in 2011 that it would take an epic amount of rain to bring us officially out of drought status. I cannot remember the specifics, but given that the Ogallala Aquifer takes so very long to recharge given its depth that the rain has to fall in virtually biblical amounts to break the drought.

I’m going to continue believing that and monitor my water use accordingly.

We don’t have one of those automated irrigation systems in our yard. So that’s not a particular issue for my wife and me. We serviced our outdoor faucets during the depths of the drought, so we’re good there. We do things in the kitchen such as turn on the sink faucet sparingly when washing dishes. We remodeled one of our bathrooms a couple of years ago and had one of those “gravity flush” toilets installed, which saves water.

We’re not paragons environmental purity. I don’t intend to portray us as such. Water preservation, though, remains on the top of my mind’s awareness, even when it’s pouring out of the sky.

I keep thinking, too, about that fabulous PBS documentary “The Dust Bowl” that aired not long ago. It told the terrible, horrifying story of how prolonged drought and reckless farming techniques formed a sort of “perfect storm” that created what has been called the nation’s “worst manmade environmental catastrophe.” The Texas and Oklahoma panhandles were in the bullseye of that hideous event.

Our farming techniques have improved since the 1930s. Yes, we can control how we take care of our land. The return of the kind of Dust Bowl-era drought, though, is far beyond our meager effort to dictate to Mother Nature.

Let’s keep that in mind — even as we welcome the rain that keeps drenching us.

national news

Did we elect a flaming racist?

1 Comment

Follow me through this sequence for a brief moment.

* A riot breaks out in Charlottesville, Va., when counter protesters objected to white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. Three people died. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, issues a tepid statement that talks of “many sides” being guilty of inciting violence.

* Two days later, after getting pounded by, um, many sides, Trump finally issues a statement condemning by name the white racist groups associated with the riot.

* Today, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier resigned from the President’s Manufacturing Council over the president’s failure to respond appropriately to the race-based riot in Virginia. It took Trump all of 54 minutes to fire off a snark-laden tweet that suggests Frazier could now spend more time to deal with “rip-off drug prices.”

* Later in the day, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank quits the same council. Plank cited the same reasons as Frazier. Trump remained quiet via Twitter. No criticism of Plank. Nothin’.

This is important, too: Frazier is black; Plank is white.

I need some help on this one. Why do you suppose the president was so quick on the Twitter trigger finger regarding Frazier’s resignation, but has remained silent on Plank’s decision to quit? Is there a relationship between those responses and the president’s initial public reaction to the violence?

Is it a coincidence? Or are there some motives that need careful examination? I’m just askin’, man.

media news

Once more in high praise of the media

The president of the United States has grown annoyingly fond of calling the media that publish and broadcast negative stories about him “fake news.”

The description he uses — and the context in which he utters it — demonstrate that Donald John Trump doesn’t understand what “fake news” really is. “Fake news” are the made up accounts, lies, fabrications … the kind of thing that Trump has done for many years. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

I want to offer another word of high praise for the media for the job they have done in covering the 45th president of the United States.

The world has witnessed a rebirth of sorts of traditional, gumshoe reporting by great print media. The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — three powerhouse print outlets — all have demonstrated the value of hard-nosed reporting. Were it not for their dogged pursuit of tips the nation wouldn’t know about:

* Russian hacking into our 2016 election process.

* Donald Trump’s presidential campaign’s potential role in that meddling.

* The issues related to the president’s firing of FBI Director James Comey.

* The possible conflicts of interests related to the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution.

That’s just four issues. The media have done their job. They have done what the media always do and what presidents — until the current one — have accepted as part of journalists’ calling.

Donald Trump instead has promoted actual “fake news” all along the way. He has promoted the scurrilous assertion that Barack Obama wasn’t constitutionally qualified to serve as president; he lied about “thousands of Muslims” cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11; he has lied about “millions of illegal immigrants” voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016; he lies about the size of his electoral victory; his press office has lied about the size of Trump’s inaugural crowd.

And this man, then, has the audacity to accuse media outlets of promoting “fake news” that in actuality is merely news that doesn’t slather him in glowing praise.

Mr. President, that’s the way it goes. Every single one of your predecessors has gotten beaten up by the media. Have they blackballed news outlets? Have they called the media “the enemy of the people”? Have they called individual reporters “terrible, dishonest human beings”? No. They understand the value of a free press and have welcomed the media’s efforts to hold all public officials accountable for the words and actions.

They have reacted far more professionally and “presidential” than the thin-skinned weakling who occupies the Big Chair in the Oval Office.

As someone who toiled for nearly four decades as a print journalist, I am damn proud of the job my former colleagues are doing.

State news

Reason required cancellation of A&M rally

Reason and sanity have prompted an eminently wise decision in Aggieland.

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp has cancelled a white nationalist rally that was scheduled for the College Station campus.

Gosh, what do you suppose prompted the cancellation?

Oh yeah! It was that hideous riot at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, the one that resulted in the deaths of three individuals. Ku Klux Klansmen, neo-Nazis and assorted white nationalists gathered there to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. All hell broke loose when counter protesters showed up.

Texas A&M was set to step into the crosshairs by agreeing to play host to its own white nationalist rally set for Sept. 11.

Then the chancellor intervened. Sharp cited safety concerns in ordering the rally canceled. According to the Austin American-Statesman, several Texas legislators urged cancellation of the rally that had been organized by a group promoting the event as a “White Lives Matter” protest. Read the rest of the American-Statesman story here.

The Charlottesville tragedy has ignited a rhetorical firestorm. Donald J. Trump threw a load of flammable liquid on it Saturday by initially declining to condemn the racists/bigots whose protests provoked the response they received. The president had a chance to lead, but then he failed to do so.

Today, the president called out the racists by name. It’s likely not enough to quell the uproar.

To that end, the A&M System has done the profoundly correct thing — given the national mood of the moment — to cancel a rally that well could have turned into another riot.

Good call, Chancellor Sharp.

national news

‘You can’t unhonk the horn’

Former Secretary of State John Kerry spoke a fundamental truth about how difficult it is to take back public statements.

Donald J. Trump said the patently wrong thing about the violence that erupted over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., calling an end to violence “on many sides.”

Rather than single out the white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen who initiated the violence, Trump chose instead to equivocate shamefully.

Well, he took a baby step toward redemption today by singling out the racists and bigots who gathered in Charlottesville to protest the taking down of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Many observers have noted that the president seemed a bit uncomfortable today as he delivered his prepared remarks.

Kerry, though, said you can’t “take back” the “many sides” comment. Kerry called the president’s first response “revealing” and said they had empowered “the worst of the worst.”

Trump tried to take it back but failed, according to Kerry.

I’m reminded of what my late friend and former colleague Claude Duncan was fond of saying: “You can’t unhonk the horn.”

Indeed, people in high places aren’t usually allowed to take mulligans. There aren’t any do-overs — especially for the president of the United States, whose words resonate and keep resonating long after he utters them.

national news

How would Dad react to these Nazi sympathizers?

I introduced you some time ago, dear reader, to my favorite veteran.

He’s my father. Dad served in the Navy during World War II. He saw plenty of combat throughout the Mediterranean theater of operations. Dad took part in three land invasions: Oran in North Africa, Sicily and in Salerno, Italy.

His ship got sunk during the Sicilian campaign. He shot a German bomber out of the sky while manning a deck gun.

I have thought of Dad during the past couple of days as national reaction poured forth about the neo-Nazis who took part in that Charlottesville, Va., protest; actually, I think of Dad — and Mom — every single day. The Nazis joined other hate groups — Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists — to protest the taking down of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, spoke for a lot of World War II veterans and their families when he said his brother “didn’t die fighting Hitler” just to let these neo-Nazis’ actions “go unchallenged.”

Dad died in September 1980. I don’t recall then the emergence of these neo-Nazi groups getting the kind of exposure they get today. How would he respond to them? How would Dad react to the hideous rhetoric that comes from individuals wearing the swastika symbols worn by those who sought to kill him in 1943 and 1944?

To be candid, I don’t recall having that discussion with Dad when he was among us.

However, I knew my father pretty well. He was a proud American. He was proud of his service defending the nation during its darkest time. Dad was one of the millions of Americans who comprised the Greatest Generation.

I believe he would be angry as hell at those who rise up to tear at the nation’s fabric. Although the name “Donald John Trump” wasn’t on anyone’s radar when Dad died, I believe he would be enraged at the seeming timidity from the president when it involves neo-Nazis.

local news, medical news

VA passes first semi-serious test

I am happy to report that the Thomas E. Creek Veterans Medical Center has passed its first semi-serious test regarding yours truly’s health care.

Today was a significant step for me that resulted in some continuing physical therapy on a nagging pain that’s developed along my left leg.

Its source is in the lower back, between a couple of vertebrae. That’s what my nurse practitioner diagnosed immediately about a week ago. The physical therapist I saw today verified that diagnosis.

The PT’s name is Debbie. She ran me through some stretching exercises this morning. She looked at my spine, stretched my legs to make sure they’re the same length (they are), asked me quite a few questions about the pain, when it hurts, when it subsides, when and where am I most comfortable, least comfortable.

Then she set up a twice-weekly schedule for additional physical therapy. I’ll be returning to the Creek center to meet with another therapist until the middle of September.

Debbie has high hopes that the regimen will lessen the pain. I informed her it isn’t debilitating. I am able to function more or less normally, even with the hitch in my git-along.

Oh, and I was in and out of the physical therapy office this morning in 45 minutes.

My sense on the care I am getting — and expect to get — at the VA medical center is that I continue to have faith that it’ll measure up to what the politicians promise for us.

***

A final note …

As I was leaving today, Debbie asked me, “What branch of the service were you in?” I told her the Army.

“Oh, that’s too bad. Your other physical therapist was in the Navy,” Debbie said with a huge smile. “After 9/11, she just got mad and signed up.”

“Hey, no sweat,” I said, “my dad served in the Navy during World War II.” I’ll also be sure to tell the sailor-turned-therapist that we all served on the same team.

national news

Trump finally says what he should’ve said the first time

That wasn’t so painful, was it, Mr. President?

Donald J. Trump returned to the White House — aka “a real dump” — to sign an executive order and then deliver some remarks about the “criminals and thugs” who instigated the deadly race riot in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend. He had been facing immense pressure from, um, “many sides” as a result of his initial response to the violence.

The president said what he needed to say at the outset. The Klan, neo-Nazis and assorted white supremacist groups provoked a riot while protesting the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. It went bad bigly.

Trump has condemned racism and bigotry and called out the white supremacists and Nazis as “criminals and thugs.” He called them what they are. Trump said “racism is evil” and said hate groups such as neo-Nazis and white supremacists “are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

How far will his remarks go in healing the damage that already has been done by his initial remarks in which he blamed “many sides” for the violence that erupted? Time will tell.

If he had asked for my opinion, I would have preferred that the president atone more directly for his error of omission. He should have acknowledged publicly in the White House that he erred in failing to respond appropriately.

Moreover, he could have said categorically that he does not welcome the overt political support of individuals such as one-time Ku Klux Klan grand dragon/lizard David Duke, who over the weekend invoked Trump’s name. Duke said he wants to “take our country back” and said “that’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”

He didn’t do those things. The president did say the right words — today! I still have to ask: Did they come from his heart, his soul?

Please demonstrate that they did, Mr. President.

national news

Trump shows yet again his true self

It took Donald John Trump several hours to say something publicly about the riot in Charlottesville, Va.

His remarks missed by a mile. Then Kenneth Frazier resigned from the President’s Manufacturing Council in protest over the tone of the president’s remarks on the riots. They didn’t go far enough, Frazier said. The president needed to condemn the racists and neo-Nazis who provoked the riot.

So, the Merck CEO quit the president’s council.

You can read Frazier’s remarks here.

How long did it take for Trump to respond to Ken Frazier’s resignation? Hardly no time at all.

He tweeted this: “now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

OK, did I mention that Kenneth Frazier is African-American? Oh, wait! I just did.

There you go. I believe we have just witnessed another remarkable demonstration of the president’s lack of character.

national news

‘These contemptible little men … ‘

The condemnations are rolling in from the Republican Party’s side of the great American political divide.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, weighed in with a message he delivered from the Balkans, where he is touring during the August congressional break.

Regarding the white supremacists who instigated the Charlottesville, Va., riot that resulted in the horrific death of a counter protester, Cotton referred to the neo-Nazis as “contemptible little men” who deserve the full brunt of whatever punishment the law would deliver to them.

And yet …

The nation’s Republican in chief, the president of the United States, seems to be standing by that shamefully tepid statement in which he lays the blame for the violence “on many sides.”

He refuses to call the white nationalists/racists/neo-Nazis out by name. Donald Trump refuses to do what he and others insisted Barack Obama do when talking about international terrorism; they insisted that the former president state specifically “radical Islamic terrorists.”

It’s clear to me now that whatever measures the president might take to atone for his egregious error of omission must refer to his mistake. He must acknowledge out loud — and in full voice — that he erred when he spoke of “many sides.” He had a chance to condemn the hate groups that foment the violence we witnessed but he blew it.

Anything short of a presidential mea culpa will lend utter hollowness to whatever he says now.

Do you expect him to do such a thing? Neither do I.