Monthly Archives: January 2018

national news

Waiting for history-making shutdown

Donald John Trump Sr. and his Republican allies in Congress are poised to make history.

Trump, who’s also a Republican (allegedly), and the GOP leaders on Capitol Hill well might shut down the government for the first time while the government is run by members of a single political party.

That’s right. Republicans have one of their own in the White House and they control both chamber of Congress.

They’re now poised to oversee the shuttering of many agencies within the federal government because they cannot agree with Democrats on a way to fund the federal government.

The 2013 shutdown occurred with a Democrat in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress. The split-power arrangement also was in play for previous government shutdowns.

This time it’s different. Ain’t it great? Actually, no. It isn’t. It’s a shameful demonstration of incompetence.

I won’t heap all the blame on Republicans. Democrats are a party to this ridiculous game of chicken as well. They are hanging tough on a bill that includes a remedy for the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals matter, or DACA. They are nose to nose with the GOP, which wants money to finance construction of a wall along our border with Mexico.

Back to my original point.

We’re quite possibly seeing history in the making.

It makes me ashamed of my government that might lead us to this ridiculous moment.

Congratulations, Republicans.

national news

It’s a CYA moment for the president

In 2013 a wealthy real estate mogul/reality TV celebrity told “Fox & Friends” who he thought should take the heat in the event of a federal government shutdown.

“I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top and the president’s the leader. And he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead,” said Donald John Trump.

Now, though, that mogul/celebrity is the president. Who takes the hickey in the event of a government shutdown this time? According to Trump, it’s congressional Democrats. They’re the bad guys, he says. They need to be punished politically for the failure to reach an agreement that funds the government over the long term.

But, but … here’s what he told “Fox & Friends”:

“They’re not going to be talking about who was the head of the House, the head the Senate, who’s running things in Washington,” Trump said.

“So I really think the pressure is on the president,” he added.

Hey, which is it, Mr. President? Are you the leader you expected from your predecessor? Or … are you a bystander?

He also has said Republicans shouldn’t fear fear a government shutdown.

Actually, I believe they should. So should the Democrats.

Time is running out.

As for leaders, they don’t worry about covering their own, um, backsides.

education news, local news

Amarillo school may get an ID change

Amarillo public school officials are about to jump with both feet into a national debate over the naming of public buildings after Confederate icons.

At issue is the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary School, which sits in the midst of the city’s African-American community.

Amarillo Independent School District trustees are going to discuss on Monday whether to change the name of the school.

My own preference? Change the name.

This entire Confederate name-change discussion erupted in the wake of that riot in Charlottesville, Va., when counter protesters clashed with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen who gathered to protest the taking down of a statute of Gen. Lee.

The Amarillo NAACP chapter favors changing the name. No surprise there. NAACP chapter president Floyd Anthony says Gen. Lee’s name on a public building that serves a hugely African-American student body — and their parents — is a slap in the face to those residents.

He makes a good point.

Gen. Lee led the Confederate States of America army that fought against the United States of America. They committed an act of treason by seceding from the Union. Why did they secede? They fought to something called “states’ rights,” which was code for allowing states to continuing the enslavement of human beings.

They were black human beings.

The war killed 600,000 people. It was the bloodiest conflict in our nation’s history.

More than 150 years later, the vestiges of that war remain with these public monuments to the men who stood foursquare against the Union.

And spare me the “heritage” argument. The Confederate battle flag has become the very symbol of hate groups such as the KKK. Do we want to honor the Klan? I think not.

To the Amarillo ISD board members, I wish them good luck as they ponder their potentially huge decision.

I hope it’s the correct one.

national news, political news

Politics can be so very poetic

I know I am not the only American who believes this, but the possible partial government shutdown seems to sum up quite nicely the first year of Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency.

Politics can be, oh, so poetic at times.

Such as right now.

It is quite possible that we’re going to wake up Saturday with the government shuttering some of its doors and windows. And think of it: This event might occur on the exact date one year after Donald Trump took the presidential oath of office.

No Drama Obama handed the White House keys over to All Chaos All the Time Trump.

Ain’t it cool? Well, no. It’s not.

The government shutdown, if it comes, will signify to me that Donald Trump’s time as president has come to a form of full circle.

He stood on the Capitol podium one year ago and delivered that dark, forbidding inaugural speech. Then right out of the chute, brand new press secretary Sean Spicer scolded the White House press corps with a scathing rebuke of its reporting of the size of the president’s inaugural crowd.

That, dear reader, set the tone for how this administration was going to conduct business.

So, here we are. One year later, we’re about the close many government offices, denying services to Americans who are entitled to partake of services they pay for with their tax money.

Trump, meanwhile, is chiding Democrats because they insist on a funding bill that takes care of so-called “Dreamers,” those U.S. residents brought here illegally when they were children. Democrats are chiding Republicans over their insistence that a funding bill include money to build a “big, beautiful wall” along our southern border.

The president’s “leadership” on this government funding madness has been missing in action.

I’ll just remind you all that of all the principals involved in this fight, only one of them represents the entire country: the president of the United States.

To borrow a phrase, Donald Trump “is leading from behind.”

Ah, yes. The political poetry of this chaos is so very telling.

As is its irony.

environmental news

Nature has this way of tending to itself

A video came to my attention. It apparently has gone viral, which is why it showed up on my Facebook feed the other day.

I opened it — and was filled with wonder at the power of Mother Nature.

It’s about the consequence of the release of 14 wolves into Yellowstone National Park. It recites the impact that the wolves have had on the ecosystem.

It’s all good, I’ll tell you. The video is here: oSN8R80e

I encourage you to take a look.

In brief, it explains how the wolves culled the deer and elk herds in Yellowstone, how the culling has helped the flora flourish, how the increased flora has attracted more birds, improved soil erosion throughout the park, enhanced the rivers, streams and lakes, which attracted more wildlife.

I remember when the National Park Service brought the wolves back into Yellowstone, the nation’s oldest national park. I was pleased to hear about the return of the beasts. I knew they would prey on injured or ailing deer and elk. They did what we all thought they would do.

Yes, the numbers of deer and elk diminished. The quality of the herds, though, improved. The more fit animals were able to survive. They reproduced.

And … shall we say that the rest is history.

Mother Nature is the greatest equalizer of them all.

national news, political news

‘Not who I am’? Are you kidding?

I never will understand the dodge that public figures utter when they’re revealed making hideous statements.

The latest comes from Carl Higbie, the former external affairs director for the federal agency that runs AmeriCorps.

A CNN investigation discovered that Higbie had made anti-Muslim, anti-gay, racist and sexist remarks. He reportedly said all these things in 2013. He has quit his post effective immediately.

Now he has resigned and issued a statement that said the following, in part: “I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that my words were published, I am sorry that I said them in 2013,” he wrote. “Those words do not reflect who I am or what I stand for, I regret saying them. Last night I informed the WH that I was resigning so as not to distract from POTUS’ many success. #noexcuses”

Read what he said here.

CNN reports further: Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and conservative media personality, was a surrogate for (Donald) Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, appearing on cable news and serving as the spokesman for the Trump-aligned Great America PAC. He was appointed to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) in 2017 to direct the public image and messaging of the federal department that manages millions of Americans in volunteer services like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps.

My question whenever I hear public figures say that their words “do not reflect who I am or what I stand for,” I feel compelled to ask: Did someone put a gun to your head and make you say those things? Did someone drug you, hypnotize you and cast a post-hypnotic suggestion on you? Is that a ventriloquist standing behind you?

This is not reflective only of the current crop of federal government appointees. Left-leaning entertainment personalities caught saying hideous things and behaving badly offer the same dodge, as do politicians of all stripes.

I won’t engage in psychobabble, seeking to explain why people say the things they do. I merely cannot accept the excuse people in the public eye use to suggest that their thoughtlessness somehow doesn’t reflect who they are.

Actually, it does.

national news

Where’s the outrage over this allegation?

Imagine for a moment this farfetched scenario.

Barack Obama is caught engaging in a relationship with a porn queen. What might be the reaction among the evangelical community if the president is said to have cheated on his wife?

Let me guess. It would produce a firestorm, an earthquake, a cyclone of criticism. From the right. There might even be some lefties who would be outraged.

I pose that hideous hypothetical circumstance to pose the question: Where is the outrage as it relates to Donald Trump’s alleged extramarital affair with a porn film performer? A woman who goes by the name of Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had a yearlong affair with Trump shortly after he married his wife, Melania.

What’s more, she says Trump paid her $130,000 in hush money to keep it quiet.

The affair has been reported by the Wall Street Journal, which isn’t a “scandal sheet” by any possible stretch of the imagination.

Trump denies the affair. Oh, I forgot. This guy also bragged about fooling around on his first wife prior to marrying his second wife … all of which occurred before he married his third wife, Melania.

However, no outrage is coming from his base within the Republican Party right wing. For that matter, even the left has been relatively quiet.

I guess there’s next to nothing about this president that surprises us. As USA Today reports: “Trump’s exploits seem to be baked into his poll numbers. The Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged — or, by his account, joked — about sexually assaulting women failed to derail his candidacy in 2016.”

Weird.

legal news

Too bad, disgraced doc; victims need to be heard

Larry Nassar said what? It’s too hard for him to listen to the testimony of young women he abused sexually while he was a practicing physician?

Oh, cry me a river!

Nassar has pleaded guilty to sexual abuse involving young gymnasts he was treating. Several of the victims happen to be members of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team.

Dozens of young women have been testifying at Nassar’s sentencing hearing. It apparently is too much for the disgraced doctor.

The judge who is presiding over this case, Rosemarie Aquilina, isn’t cutting him any slack.

The pedophile, who’s facing a potential life sentence in prison for what he did to those girls, needs to hear all the victims who want to speak.

If it’s too hard on him, well, the former doctor should not for a split second expect a scintilla of sympathy from the court — or anyone else.

As RealClearPolitics has reported:

“Now this is entertaining to me,” County Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina reportedly said as she read the letter. The news outlet said the judge scoffed in particular at this line: “Aquilina said if I pass out she’ll have the EMTs revive me and prop me up in the witness box.”

“I suspect you have watched too much television,” Aquilina said. “It’s delusional. You need to talk about these issues with a therapist and that’s not me.”

local news

Happy Trails, Part 71

There’s something to be said for living in a recreational vehicle and getting a visual treat such as what we received this evening.

Our retirement has brought us to a new lifestyle. It’s a bit more cramped than what we have experienced. My wife, Toby the Puppy and I are spending our evenings in our fifth wheel. We’re in our second Amarillo, Texas, location.

We vacated the first place right after Christmas; we ventured to North Texas to celebrate the holiday with our granddaughter and her parents, then returned to another RV park near Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

This view is from our RV picture window. We saw the sun set in the west and set the sky ablaze as it sank below the horizon.

I’ve mentioned already on this blog about how God blessed the Texas Panhandle with a huge sky in exchange for tall timber and mountains.

I won’t rehash those thoughts.

However, our retirement life in this location has treated us to some spectacular days end sights … and some equally glorious beginning of days.

The sunset today was particularly gratifying, when you consider the bone-chilling days we’ve endured in this part of the world. At least we have avoided the terrible snow/ice/sleet that has plagued much of the rest of the nation.

Today was a special day, made that way by the spectacular sight of the sun sinking slowly in the west.

Let’s do this again tomorrow.

media news

Missing the ‘Praise and Damnation’ of old

I dug up an old blog post that I thought I’d share once again.

It speaks to some of the give and take I used to engage in while working as editor of editorial pages in three locations: one in Oregon and two in Texas.

I carried a file around with me for more than three decades. I called it my “Praise and Damnation” file. It contained feedback from readers who either agreed or disagreed with what I wrote, either under my own name or on behalf of the editorial board of which I was a member.

This particular blog post from the past highlights a response to an editorial I wrote about Haiti, a country that’s been in news of late, courtesy of the president’s description of the island nation as a “sh**hole country.”

https://highplainsblogger.com/2010/01/damnation-to-the-max/

I discarded the file not too many years ago. I don’t regret doing so. The file took up space in my filing cabinet at home and, quite frankly, it reminded me of the unpleasantness associated with the end of my print journalism career.

This blog post from 2010, though, does remind me of how readers managed to keep me humble. I rarely took personal offense at those who disagreed with whatever I wrote. Yes, there were exceptions. Occasionally someone would question my patriotism, my parentage or even my religious faith. As a God-fearing U.S. Army veteran born to parents who were married legally to each other, well, I kind of took offense to some people’s more personal attacks.

But what the heck. It all went with the territory.

I am still able to maintain a sense of humility through this blog. I get my share of criticism to go along with the affirmation.

Believe it or not, I do appreciate thoughtful critics nearly as much as I appreciate those who cheer me on.