Monthly Archives: April 2018

entertainment news

She’s not funny, man!

Maybe I had a longer day than I thought. I might be more tired than I imagined.

I tried to watch a comedian yuk it up at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Then I turned to another channel on my TV.

Michelle Wolf was touted as a “hilarious” comic. She was going to bring the house down at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., as the headline act at the annual event.

Donald Trump wasn’t there. That’s fine. He likely won’t attend an event meant to honor the media. Or, as Trump has called them: The enemy of the American people.

This idiot, Michelle Wolf, rang hollow, cheap, tawdry and decidedly not funny to my ears.

Hey, there’s no accounting for taste. I’ll just say that I have no problem with off-color jokes. I like them as much as the next red-blooded American male.

But this clown, um, is not funny.

With that, you don’t have to take my word for it.

You can see Wolf’s monologue for yourself, probably as early as Sunday, on YouTube. You can look it up.

If you think Wolf is a hoot, well … good for you.

national news

Trump knows things? Spill it, Mr. POTUS!

Donald Trump said the following — among many other nonsensical things — at a political rally in Michigan: “I know things about Tester that I could say, too. And if I said them, he’d never be elected again.”

What do you suppose they are?

I’m guessing they’re the kinds of “things” Trump said he knew about former President Barack Obama’s place of birth. Or about the “millions of illegal immigrants” who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Or about the wiretap that President Obama ordered on his campaign office in New York.

Of course, the president produced not a shred of evidence for anything he said he had.

Now he’s threatening Sen. Jon Tester with “things” he allegedly knows. Tester’s sin? Oh, all he did was question whether Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Ronny Jackson, was fit for the job.

The Montana Democrat is not to blame for the president’s failure to vet Dr. Jackson properly before offering him as a VA secretary nominee. Tester isn’t to blame for Trump’s shabby and sloppy appointment process.

So now he’s threatening a U.S. senator? You know, I’m understanding better now what fired FBI Director James Comey means when he says Trump governs like a “mob boss.”

Disgraceful.

political news

Nobel for Trump? Not … just … yet!

They’re chanting “No-bel! No-bel! No-bel!” at a political rally in Michigan, where the president of the United States is staging a campaign rally.

Why the chant? Well, the crowd of Trumpkins thinks Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because North and South Korea’s leaders shook hands at the DMZ and promised to pledged to sign a peace treaty that ends the Korean War, where the shooting stopped in 1953.

My response? Hold the phone! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

If North Korean President Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in sign that peace treaty, if Kim Jong Un disassembles nuclear weapons, and if there is a demonstrable lessening of tension on the Korean Peninsula, then let’s consider whether the president deserves the Peace Prize.

Nothing of substance has happened. There might be nothing that will happen. The planned Kim meeting with Donald Trump still hasn’t occurred. Trump has said if it is “not fruitful,” he would walk away from the meeting with Kim.

How would that look to the Nobel committee that awards these prizes? Not well, if you ask me.

If North and South Korea strike a peace deal, if the North de-nukes the peninsula and if Kim and Trump strike a long-term agreement that leads to normalization of relations between the U.S. and the reclusive Marxist regime …

By all means, consider the president as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. But not before.

Oh, and one more thing. If by chance Donald Trump actually is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the entire world will never hear the end of it.

Never!

national news

Trump makes laughable demand for resignation

Jon Tester is doing his job as a U.S. senator.

The Montana Democrat spoke out against Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. As the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Tester said Dr. Ronny Jackson — the White House physician — was unfit to lead the VA.

Sen. Tester based his judgment on allegations leveled by at least 20 members of the military, who accused Jackson of a number of misdeeds: over prescribing of medication; instigating a hostile work environment; drinking on the job.

Jackson pulled his name out of consideration for the VA job.

What, then, does the president do? He calls for Tester’s resignation from the Senate.

Let’s be clear. Sen. Tester did not conduct himself improperly. There isn’t a hint of malfeasance. No fraud. No scandal. No funny business, hanky-panky, or scandalous conduct.

All the man has done is his job as a United States senator, which he takes seriously enough to incur the unbridled — and unhinged — wrath of a president who takes himself far more seriously than the high office to which he was elected.

Trump’s tirade via Twitter against Tester provides yet another example of how the president behaves, how his mind works and how this man doesn’t respect the dignity of his office.

If anyone should consider resigning, to my mind it’s Donald Trump!

national news, political news

Trump wants Sen. Tester to quit because … ?

I’ve said this before and I will keep saying it for as long as I damn well please … but Donald J. Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing or saying.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., led the U.S. Senate criticism of Dr. Ronny Jackson, the president’s nominee to become secretary of veterans affairs. Allegations surfaced from within the military that Jackson — a Navy admiral — enabled a hostile work environment, that he over-prescribed medication and drank on the job.

Tester called on Jackson — the White House physician — to withdraw his nomination. Dr. Jackson did this week. He pulled out, calling the allegations false and saying they had become a “distraction.”

Fine. Hit the road, Doc. Don’t let the door hit you in the … whatever.

The president, though, once again talked way past the sale by saying Tester should resign his Senate seat. Why? Well, because he was overly harsh in his criticism of Dr. Jackson. Tester, though, is far from the only senator to say Jackson shouldn’t serve as head of the VA. A number of, um, Republicans joined that anti-Jackson chorus, too. Is the GOP president going to ask any or all of them to quit? Of course he won’t. That’s because he suffers from selective indignation.

As for Trump’s call for Tester to quit, it is just so much more malarkey coming from the mouth of the guy whose White House staff failed miserably in vetting Dr. Jackson. All they had to ask him was: Is there anything in your background, given the current climate in Washington, that should cause us any concern?

They didn’t. He did. He’s gone. Tester — and others — called him out.

Mr. President, just go find another VA secretary and this time, be sure he or she is free of the baggage that scuttled Admiral Jackson’s nomination.

entertainment news

Yes, I did see the greatest of the great bands

Perhaps you have seen the bumper sticker that reads: I may be old, but at least I saw all the great bands.

I am old. I have seen a lot of them. Their music is timeless. It holds up now and likely will do so … forever and ever!

This afternoon, I visited a store to take care of some business. A young man, maybe about 23 years of age, helped me with my issue. To get the issue resolved, I needed to set up an online billing account.

The outlet asked me for the usual stuff: user name, password, email address … etc.

Then it presented a list of “security questions” to ensure that only I could access this account. One of them was this: What was your first concert?

I looked the young man in the eye and said, “Now, watch me type this. You’ll be amazed.” I typed “The Beatles.”

He was amazed. Then it dawned on me. He likely was born more than a quarter of a century after The Beatles broke up. But, boy howdy, he knew of their music.

“That must have been a great concert,” he said. “Well, it was … but then again it was quite short,” I said of the August 1965 show. They played for about 30 minutes; blasted through 10 songs. No encore. Then they were gone. The screaming crowd was spent. I told the youngster my wife and I attended a Paul McCartney concert in 1993 at the Houston Astrodome; Sir Paul lit the place up for three hours. “Now that was a great concert,” I said.

I went with my sister to that first concert. I was 15; she was 14. “My sister really loved George,” I told the young man. “How cool,” he said.

Yes, it was. And it is. The music of our generation will play in people’s hearts and minds for as long as there are people around to appreciate it.

It really is great being old.

local news

Make more room for Tri-State Fair? Sure!

A fellow Amarillo resident has come up with a perfectly solid reason for tearing down the rathole also known as Potter County Memorial Stadium.

His name is Larry Hamilton, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Amarillo Globe-News: Our Tri-State Fair in Amarillo is a really nice-sized fair. However, with our ever growing size and population, why not tear the old stadium down and increase the size of our fair, midway, eateries – anything that will eventually need more room.

Why not, indeed?

I am not a fair kind of guy. I’ve been to the Tri-State Fair a few times over many years. While it doesn’t appeal to me, I understand the appeal it has for others.

The old ballpark — which sits next to the fairgrounds — is no longer a suitable venue for anything. Potter County isn’t going to spend any money to rehabilitate it.

Larry Hamilton has offered a suitable and plausible reason for tearing it down. Let the Tri-State Fair board expand its annual event, giving it more space for those who like these events to enjoy.

International news

Wishing for success creates emotional conflict

I have made no secret of my loathing, disgust and anger at Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency of the United States.

I won’t back down from any of those feelings.

That all said, I am torn at this moment. The president is on the verge of scoring a major success that if it comes through will benefit the entire planet, not just the country he leads.

North and South Korea might be on the verge of forging a peace agreement that ends officially the Korean War. Moreover, they might be willing to “de-nuclearize” the Korean Peninsula, which of course means that North Korea could abandon its plans to build a nuclear arsenal.

The Korean War ended in 1953 with a ceasefire. They never signed a peace treaty, which means the Koreas remain in a state of war.

The president is likely to take credit bigly for whatever good comes from a peace treaty and a possible disarming of North Korea.

He’ll deserve credit. All of it? I’ll wait for that one.

I fear that Trump will boast and brag his way past any good feelings that would result. Believe me, his critics — such as yours truly — will be hard-pressed to speak kindly of the president, which means it will take little for us to walk back the good thoughts and public pronouncements that will come his way.

However, when the president succeeds, the nation succeeds. We all should be bigger than our personal dislike, distaste and disgust that Donald Trump is at the center of it.

I’ll hope for the best on the Korean Peninsula.

media news

Presidents should understand value of a free press

Presidents have come and gone over the course of our beloved Republic.

Some tenets, though, remain affixed to our national identity. One of them is a free press and the guarantee that government cannot control it.

The video attached to this blog post offers an example of how one president, John F. Kennedy, understood how a free press is vital to guard against the darkness of secrecy. President Kennedy sought to defend the press as it did its job, even when its reporting cast his administration in a negative light.

The Bay of Pigs is an example of how the president likely wanted the press to look the other way. It didn’t. Nor could the president insist out loud and in public that it do that very thing. The Bay of Pigs was a disaster from the get-go. The military operation in April 1961 sought to overthrow the Fidel Castro government in Cuba. It was poorly planned and poorly executed. As JFK said at he time, “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

The press reported the failure … as it should have done.

What a change we are seeing in the present day with one of JFK’s successors, Donald J. Trump, who insists that negative coverage is the product of “fake news,” which is a denigration of the men and women who take their jobs at least as seriously as the president takes his.

Trump doesn’t get what damn near all of his predecessors have understood. The press is vital to hold public officials accountable for their actions. Without the media doing their job, the government can do irreparable harm to our cherished Republic.

national news

Did POTUS really say this … and what does he mean?

Donald J. Trump played host to members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.

He said this, referring to the Paralympians, according to PBS: During an event with Team USA Olympians and Paralympians at the White House, President Trump said, “What happened with the Paralympics was so incredible and so inspiring to me. And I watched — it’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.”

A “little tough to watch too much”? He said that, adding that he “watched as much as I could”?

I am not going to read the president’s mind on this. I merely sit out here in Flyover Country, reading statements that come from this guy. I am left to wonder if I am able to interpret correctly his statements.

My interpretation here is that he had difficulty watching athletes with impairments that might sideline them. If that’s the case, then how can the president actually say such a thing to athletes who have excelled beyond measure?