Monthly Archives: June 2018

media news

Are you softening toward the media, Mr. POTUS?

Donald J. Trump said this in reaction to the Annapolis Capital-Gazette massacre of five newspaper employees: “Journalists, like all Americans should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.”

Indeed, Mr. President. Thank you for those words. This former journalist appreciates your (possible) newfound respect for the work that journalists do in service to their communities and to the country.

But they come so soon after yet another full-on assault by the president himself on the media. He continues to call the media the nation’s top “enemy,” and calls them the “enemy of the American people.”

Which is it, Mr. President? Are the media the enemy? Or are they just like all Americans who are doing the work they are trained to do?

I’ll hold out hope that it’s the latter and that the president finally might dial back the vicious rhetoric he spews against the media.

State news

You’re even less funny now, Gov. Abbott

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott went to a gun range a year ago, shot a few rounds into a target and then bragged about the tight grouping of bullet holes he put into the piece of paper.

As Time reported: “I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” according to the Texas Tribune. 

That’s a serious knee-slapper, ain’t it?

I didn’t laugh at the time. I am seriously not laughing now in the wake of what happened Thursday in the newsroom of the Annapolis (Md.) Capital-Gazette, where five people were slaughtered by a gunman.

Do you know what I’d like to hear now from Gov. Abbott? A statement of remorse over his tasteless quip. That would help quell at least some of the hatred that’s being fomented against members of the media by politicians in high places.

Here’s how Time reported it.

What do you think, Gov. Abbott?

media news

Sharing a cherished memory of a life in journalism

I want to re-share a memory I posted on High Plains Blogger four years ago.

It involves my abrupt departure from a craft I enjoyed pursuing for nearly four decades. It also involves a memento I packed around for a good portion of that time.

I found it this morning just as I posted an item about the shooting in Annapolis, Md. It seems oddly poetic at this time of national grief.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2014/03/memento-returns-home/

 

national news

We know others just like them

I should be reluctant to place the murders of five people in an Annapolis, Md., newspaper office into a special category of grief.

I mean, we’ve all been to movie theaters, or to nightclubs, or shopped at malls, or attended music concerts or attended public schools (or have members of our family in those schools at this moment). Shooters have opened fire in those venues, sending the nation into spasms of grief and agony.

However, the deaths of these five Capital-Gazette employees hits many of us harder than many millions of other Americans. We worked in newsrooms. I worked in newsrooms.

And I know people who all but match the descriptions of those who died Thursday at the hands of a madman.

Mentor, quirky, dedicated to the community, a fresh face. Those of who us have toiled — or who are toiling — at this craft feel this loss in a uniquely common manner. We all know journalists, dedicated craftsmen and women, just like them. We also have known young sales assistants just like the young woman who fell to the gunman’s unhinged wrath.

Yeah, this tragedy hurts … a lot!

media news

‘The enemy of the people’?

Let’s not pussyfoot around this one, dear reader.

The president of the United States needs to cease using the kind of inflammatory rhetoric he has been using against members of the media.

Americans are awakening today trying to digest the impact of a mass shooting at the Annapolis (Md.) Capital-Gazette. Five people were gunned down by a man with a shotgun. He allegedly had a grievance against the newspaper, stemming from a defamation lawsuit he had filed; the judge tossed his suit.

It is fair to ask at this moment, in this overheated time of discord and dispute, whether Donald J. Trump’s rhetoric might be at the very least partially responsible for the tragedy that befell the Capital-Gazette.

The newspaper’s editorial page this morning declared that the staff is “speechless” and urges Americans to seek to become better as a result.

The president immediately offered his “thoughts and prayers” for the victims. He thanked the first responders for the rapid reaction to the tragedy.

Now, let’s get to the rest of it, Mr. President. None of us can know with absolute certainty whether this shooter was driven by the intense anti-media rhetoric that has come from the president, who has labeled the media to be the “enemy of the American people.”

The juxtaposition, however, of the shooting and the backdrop of the intense hatred of the media that has boiled up in some political circles make many of us wonder.

It’s time to dial it back, Mr. President.

As CNN.com reported: The newspaper, which was reeling from the attack, defiantly tweeted on Thursday: “Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow.”

Its mission continues.

God bless them.

national news

Another shooting, more grief

I am running out of ways to express my horror at the gun violence that has erupted yet again.

A shooter walked into an Annapolis, Md., newspaper office — the Capital Gazette — and opened fire. He killed five people and “gravely” wounded several others.

Details are sketchy about the gunman. Or his motive. Or even his identity.

School shootings have become the scourge of our society. Gunmen have performed acts of carnage in movie theaters, shopping malls, a country music festival, nightclubs.

Now it’s a newspaper office.

What in the name of civilized society has happened to us?

national news

Wait for Mueller before making SCOTUS pick?

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An interesting idea is being floated by those with some stake in the president’s next selection for the U.S. Supreme Court.

It goes like this: Donald Trump should wait for special counsel Robert Mueller to finish his probe into the “Russia thing” before making his choice known. Think for a moment about this. What if Mueller determines there is some criminality involved in the Trump presidential campaign’s dealing with Russian goons who meddled in our 2016 election? What happens if that case ends up eventually before the nation’s highest court?

Does the president deserve to select someone who might have a material interest in determining the legal fate of a case involving the president, his campaign and, indeed, the presidency itself?

There’s plenty of chatter already that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should allow the midterm election to determine the Senate composition before sending this nomination up for a Senate vote; the Senate must confirm this appointment. McConnell did manage to block President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in early 2016 shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama had nearly a year left in his presidency, but McConnell said the Senate needed to wait until the presidential election before considering anyone for the court.

Mueller well might be getting near the end of his exhaustive probe. Should we wait for the special counsel to finish his task and deliver his report to America? Sure. Why not?

environmental news, local news

What was I thinking?

AMARILLO, Texas — I must have been off my rocker, had rocks in my noggin, gone around the bend when I had all those positive thoughts about the Texas Panhandle wind.

Twenty-three years of life on the Caprock have schooled me about the wind. It’s far more of an annoyance than a blessing.

We have returned to the Panhandle for a brief visit. And, oh yes, the wind greeted us — with a vengeance.

There once was a time when I could rationalize the benefit of the wind. Such as:

  • It keeps the bugs away.
  • It cleans the air.
  • It helps reduce the stifling humidity.
  • It provides a relentless, endless source of clean energy.

That’s about it. But I would trot those “benefits” out when someone would gripe about the wind. I now join the gripers. The whiners’ chorus has gained a member, although I remain a huge proponent of wind power as an alternative energy source.

I also understand the threat the wind presents, particularly during the summer months.

The wind exacerbates fire dangers manyfold. It dries out the grassland that has been moisturized by rain or snow. The grass grows, it adds fuel that can ignite easily.

You know how the rest of it goes.

Our new home near Dallas presents some other annoyances, such as the humidity that one doesn’t normally find way up yonder on the Caprock, which sits roughly 3,600 feet above sea level.

But … I look at it this way: My family and I spent nearly 11 years on the Texas Gulf Coast, in the Golden Triangle. We didn’t exactly enjoy the stifling summers there; we merely adjusted to it.

My memories of that period are still vivid. So I won’t let the relative humidity of the Metroplex get me down.

I also remember the Panhandle wind. Those memories are even more vivid. I no longer enjoy what I used to pass off as a flying bug deterrent.

national news, political news

SCOTUS becomes a midterm campaign issue

The midterm elections are four months away. The entire U.S. House of Representatives is up for grabs, along with one-third of the U.S. Senate.

But forget about the individual seats taking center stage. My hunch is that the Supreme Court will rise to the level of Campaign Issue No. 1, particularly as it involves the Senate.

Senators will get to decide who succeeds Anthony Kennedy, who retires at the end of July from the seat he has held for 30 years on the nation’s highest court.

Kennedy is considered a “swing vote.” Donald Trump is likely to nominate a hard-core conservative to succeed him. The balance of power on the court could change for decades to come.

Whoever gets confirmed could determine the fate of women’s reproductive rights, myriad issues involving religion, campaign finance, environmental regulations.

Do you think the federal judiciary is “above politics”? Guess again.

national news

‘Dreamers’ are still getting kicked around

Oh, man, I hate that so-called “Dreamers” keep getting kicked around like the political football they have become.

It happened yet again as the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a compromise immigration bill that, among other things, gave Dreamers a “pathway to U.S. citizenship.” Conservatives saw that “pathway” provision and translated it to “amnesty.” They would have none of it.

This bill also included money for a wall. I don’t give a damn about the wall, other than I hate the idea of it. My thought today is about the Dreamers.

Dreamers are those who came this country as the children of illegal immigrant parents who brought them across the border in the search for a better life. They were granted a temporary reprieve from deportation by President Obama who signed an executive order creating the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, aka DACA.

DACA residents deserve that pathway. They shouldn’t be deported because their parents brought them here. Many of them were babies. They know no other country. They are de facto Americans.

But in the Age of Trump, all illegal immigrants — even DACA residents — are now thought to be criminals. They need to be deported.

This is heartless. It is inhumane. It is un-American.