Monthly Archives: May 2018

national news

‘A little bit of a victim’? Give it up, man!

Matt Schlapp needs to be slapped bald-headed.

The conservative activist has taken up some form of defense for the White House communications aide who said that Sen. John McCain’s criticism of CIA nominee Gina Haspel “doesn’t matter, because he’s dying anyway.”

The aide’s name is Kelly Sadler. Schlapp has defended her saying she’s a “little bit of a victim.”

No she’s not! She’s a thoughtless mid-level clown who popped off in private with what has been described as a “bad joke.”

McCain doesn’t like Haspel’s view of torturing enemy combatants. He urged the Senate reject her confirmation. Yes, he’s battling a life-threatening disease. However, he is of sound mind and is entitled to speak his mind about an important policy matter. And there is no one in the U.S. Senate who is more qualified to speak about torture than McCain, a former Vietnam War prisoner who endured years of torture at the hands of his captors.

Sadler popped off thoughtlessly.

Schlapp said this, according to The Hill: “Kelly is my friend. I feel bad she is going through this. She immediately called to apologize. She’s also a little bit of a victim here,” Schlapp told CNN “New Day” co-anchor Chris Cuomo.

The story has gotten national attention. It has serious legs and is threatening to keep on running until Sadler owns up publicly to her idiotic comment.

Spare us the indignation, too, over the leaking of the comment to the media. Big deal. All of those in the room are answerable to the public in the first place and millions of us out here way beyond the Beltway are damn angry that a White House functionary would be so cruel — even in “private.”

local news

Happy Trails, Part 103

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A word to the wise if you’re intending to “downsize” while you ponder moving from one dwelling to another: Make damn sure to commit to it and be sure you get rid of everything you don’t want/need before you make the move.

We are settling in to our new digs in Fairview. My wife — the boss of this operation — has discovered that “We didn’t downsize nearly enough.”

The house we sold is roughly twice the size of the “luxury apartment” we now call “home.” We sought to rid ourselves of much of the major items we had accumulated over many years of marriage; it’s 46 years, in case you’re interested. Yes, over time any normal couple can collect a lot of, um, things. We are pretty normal, so there you have it.

We didn’t do all we needed to do to get ready for this big step.

But there is light out there. It’s in the distance. I can see it shining a bit more brightly today than I could just a day or two ago.

My bride is hard at work finding places for most of the items we brought with us. I found the nearest Salvation Army site; it’s just up the road in McKinney. We now plan to become the Army’s next major deliverer of unwanted, unneeded goods. We have a lot of them!

Yes, this retirement journey on which we set forth a few years ago has been relatively hassle-free. It remains so even as we unpack items and store them in our new digs.

Wish us well, please.

local news

Firefighters answer the call yet again

Fire is breaking out in the Texas Panhandle.

We aren’t there to witness it up close, first hand. I am hearing reports of serious scorching in an area southeast of Amarillo.

I also am hearing reports of firefighters coming from far and wide to assist the assorted Panhandle firefighting units in battling the blazes. The Mallard Fire has burned 73,000 acres in Armstrong County, creating something called a “pyrocumulus” cloud that developed above the blaze and triggering a severe thunderstorm.

Holy moly, man!

It’s time once again to offer word of thanks and eternal gratitude for the selflessness exhibited in times of need by these heroes. So help me, I can’t say it enough.

These men and women run toward trouble when it erupts. It’s the same ethic that drives police officers to do the same thing.

Man, oh man. If society needs heroes to honor daily, they wear the fire and police uniforms. Many of them are volunteers, which means they get paid next to nothing to risk their lives to protect the rest of us.

They are coming from Bexar County in South Texas, or so I’ve heard; let’s see, that’s about 500 miles from the Panhandle. Other reports have firefighters traveling from the Metroplex (Flower Mound, to be precise).

These individuals represent the best of us. They embody selfless public service. They are the pure definition of the term “public service.”

I wish them well, safety, and God’s blessing as they do their work on our behalf. Many thanks go to them all. They’re heroes.

State news

Lawmaker to lobbyist: an unfair advantage

Blake Farenthold has left one job in Washington, D.C., and has immediately cashed in with another one.

It makes me wonder as I have in the past: Why can’t there be a built-in revolving door clause that requires former lawmakers to spend some time on the outside before they become lobbyists?

Farenthold left Congress amid a sexual harassment scandal that took him down. He dipped into a taxpayer-funded cache of money to shell out $84,000 to settle some of the sexual harassment claims.

It was not a graceful end to this man’s congressional career.

What does he do now? He lands a job as a “legislative liaison” for the Port of Port Lavaca, near Corpus Christi, which is where he represented in Congress.

Why does this stink? Because it allows an immediate past member of Congress to parlay his contacts, relationships and friendships with members of Congress on behalf of interests he is representing.

It gives him a leg up or an unfair advantage over other lobbyists.

I have nothing against lobbying, per se. It provides special interests with valuable access to those who can benefit them tangibly. I get it, man! It’s the American way.

However, I’ve never liked this idea of legislators or members of Congress instantly becoming lobbyists after their public careers have come to an end.

I would prefer a two- or three-year required waiting period. It enables some additional congressional turnover to occur, which might tend to level the playing field for all the lobbyists who hound, harangue and hassle members of Congress on behalf of their clients.

As the Texas Tribune reported: In a statement provided to the Caller-Times, the Calhoun Port Authority, which oversees the Port of Port Lavaca-Point Comfort, confirmed that Farenthold would serve as the port’s full-time legislative liaison. The port did not return a phone call from the Texas Tribune requesting comment Monday.

“Blake has always been a strong supporter of the Calhoun Port Authority and is familiar with the issues facing the Port,” the statement said. “The Board looks forward to the services Blake can provide in assisting the Port with matters in Washington, D.C.”

Yeah. Do ya think?

Aww, what the heck. Maybe with his new source of income, he can pay back that 84 grand he took from taxpayers to settle those bad conduct lawsuits.

International news

Wishing success for the country … as always

I have been grappling with conflicting emotions ever since, oh, Jan. 20, 2017 — the day Donald John Trump took office as president of the United States.

You know, without a shadow of a doubt, about my feelings of him as president. He is unfit for the office at almost every level imaginable, in my view at least. However, he was elected to the office under the rules provided by the U.S. Constitution. I don’t quibble with that. Not for a moment.

Do I wish him success? Well, yes. But only grudgingly.

The better question might be: Do I wish the nation success? Yes. Without any malice at all.

Where is the disconnect? It probably rests in Trump’s penchant for gracelessness when the moments demand grace and class.

When good economic news presents itself, the president is prone to boast out loud, taking all the credit for himself and never giving credit to anyone else, such as — oh, let me think — his predecessor for leaving the nation in much better economic health than he found it eight years earlier.

Trump stands on the cusp of achieving possibly a monumental breakthrough with an enemy of the United States. He’ll meet next month in Singapore with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between U.S. and North Korean heads of state.

Do I wish, hope and pray for a positive outcome? Do I hope that Kim agrees to de-nuke the Korean Peninsula? Do I want the nations to forge a “normal diplomatic relationship”? Of course I do. I want the nation to succeed.

Trump, though, is likely — as he has demonstrated so many times in the past — to piddle all over the good feelings that should come from a successful U.S.-North Korea summit. How will he handle it? Will he boast that none of this would have been possible with anyone other than him at the helm?

I remain adamantly opposed the idea of Donald Trump serving as president of my country. That opposition is unlikely to dissipate any time soon — if ever!

However, I always want the nation to prosper, to succeed, to continue its march along its path of greatness.

Yes, even with Donald John Trump as president.

International news

Peace seems to slip away in Israel

They dedicated the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem today.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was all smiles. So were Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. So was mega Republican campaign donor Sheldon Adelsen. And so were others in the large crowd.

But …

There was a good bit of unhappiness at this occasion. Palestinians died today while trying to enter Israel from Gaza. There were riots. Protests mounted all across the country and the region.

The way I see it, peace between Israel and the Palestinians appears farther away — not closer together.

Donald J. Trump vowed to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem while he ran for president. Once elected, he delivered on the campaign pledge. This move, though, flies in the face of what most of our allies wanted.

Jerusalem happens to be a holy city for Jews, Christians and, oh yes, Muslims. Go to the Old City and you find it divided into four quarters (the Armenians comprise the fourth quarter of the walled city).

Inside the old walled city you find the Western Wall, the Church of the Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock. All three sites symbolize the three great religions I just mentioned.

The symbolism of the embassy relocation has inflamed tensions between Jews and Muslims.

Which makes me wonder: What in the world did the president expect would happen when the day arrived finally for the embassy to open for business?

Isn’t the presidential son-in-law, Kushner, supposed to be the lead guy on this peace initiative? How in the world does the region achieve the long sought after “two-state solution” with an independent Palestine function alongside Israel with this kind of violence erupting?

I am afraid today’s events have taken the world a large step away from peace in the Holy Land.

International news

Senate should confirm Gina Haspel as CIA boss

Gina Haspel has spent her career as an undercover agent for the Central Intelligence Agency. She’s no politician or bureaucrat or think-tank wonk.

She’s a career spook. Haspel also should become the next head of the CIA, despite the criticism she has gotten from some quarters about her role in torturing enemy combatants since the onset of the war against terrorism.

I am troubled as well by her declining to declare torture to be immoral. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called that refusal a “disqualifier.” I happen to disagree with the brave senator/war hero who knows a lot about torture.

Haspel did tell the Senate committee conducting her confirmation hearing that she wouldn’t “restart such a detention and interrogation program” on her watch. That program includes waterboarding and other forms of “intensive interrogation techniques.”

I am willing to take Haspel at her word, even though the president of the United States said more than once while campaigning for the office that waterboarding “doesn’t go far enough.”

Donald Trump has sought to place the CIA  in the hands of a career intelligence officer. She knows her business. I have to maintain faith that she is alert to the fact that the nation — and the world — are watching her every move as she takes command of the nation’s top spy agency.

So, I will maintain that faith as Gina Haspel takes command of an agency that plays arguably the most vital role in our ongoing worldwide fight against those who seek to do us harm.

entertainment news

Margot Kidder finally finds her peace

Leave it to a most unusual source to provide poignancy to the death of a one-time film star who turned into a symbol for those who struggled as she did.

Margot Kidder has died at the age of 69. Film fans remember as Lois Lane in the “Superman” series of movies.

This is what David Axelrod, President Barack Obama’s former political guru said about Kidder, via Twitter:

Margot Kidder should be remembered as much for courageously, candidly discussing her battles with mental illness as for any screen role. There are no Supermen— or women. It is not a character deficiency to acknowledge such struggles and get the help and treatment you need! RIP.

Indeed, Kidder’s life hit the skids after her film career ended. But she didn’t go into hiding entirely. She was open about her troubles. Kidder spoke of her mental illness and of her homelessness. She was destitute.

I suppose you could say she was a broken woman.

But she recovered, managing to get her bipolar disorder under control. Kidder became a political activist, supporting progressive causes and candidates. She turned her interest to environmental issues.

Now, though, the pain she suffered has been relieved for eternity. As David Axelrod noted, Margot Kidder demonstrated a strength of character by acknowledging the struggles she endured.

media news

Hannity needs a new gig: How about WH adviser?

Sean Hannity is crossing a serious line that is supposed to separate the media from those on whom they report and provide commentary.

The Fox News host reportedly talks regularly with Donald John Trump, as in nightly after his TV talk show. The president is a big fan of Hannity, who’s been a stalwart defender of the president throughout his entry into public life as a candidate for high office and then an occupier of it.

I have argued that Hannity isn’t a journalist in the sense of the word we normally associate with it. He isn’t trained in the craft. He dropped out of two colleges. He has been a staple of conservative media for many years, owing to his gift of gab.

I have an idea for Hannity to ponder. Give up the Fox gig and ask your pal the POTUS if he has something for you to do at the White House. He doesn’t have a communications director. The last one, Hope Hicks, quit. I figure that Hannity is at least as qualified as the previous two communications chiefs, Hicks and The Mooch — aka Anthony Scaramucci.

Hannity already has been outed as a secret “client” of one of Trump’s lawyers, Michael Cohen. Yeah, yeah, I know: Hannity says he wasn’t an actual “client” of Cohen, that they discussed real estate issues or some other nonsense. But he does have a relationship with him and he failed to disclose that relationship while he took up the cudgel in Cohen’s defense while also defending Cohen’s other client, Donald Trump.

But if the reports are true of Hannity’s cozy relationship with the president — that he might be discussing policy issues with him and perhaps even briefing the Big Man on what he ought to say about this and/or that — then quit the pretense.

Ask Trump for a job. I’d bet real American money he would find one for you. Fox won’t have any trouble finding someone to replace you on the air.

local news

Let’s make every day a Sunday

I have come up with a fantasy I know will never be achieved, but I need to express it anyway.

Is there a way to make every day a Sunday? I guess when you’re retired, as my wife and I are these days, every day is a weekend of sorts. We lose track of time occasionally.

What day is it? Is it really Thursday? Gosh, it feels like a Saturday.

We’re getting acquainted with our new surroundings in Fairview, Texas. This morning, we awoke and then headed out for a Mother’s Day breakfast and a little shopping at the grocery store.

We took our Prius to a busy east-west thoroughfare and noticed that there was nobody on it. We made the turn west to U.S. Highway 75, then turned south.

No one was on the freeway, or on the frontage road, either.

We pulled in to the restaurant. We ate our meal. Then we drove the store that was just a few hundred yards away.

No one in the store!

Sunday morning is the time to do whatever it is you want to do, providing the businesses you need are open at the moment.

And with the legendary traffic snarls that occur in the region just north of Dallas, we enjoyed the morning of our first full day in our new digs just fine, thank you very much.

Why can’t every day be so quiet and peaceful?

Monday awaits. Oh, boy!