Monthly Archives: July 2018

environmental news

Finally! Pruitt calls it quits

Scott Pruitt is out.

What in the world took so damn long for the Environmental Protection Agency head to hit the road? He had been buried under a mountain of scandals relating to ethical conduct, excessive spending and conflict of interest.

It was bad enough that the former Oklahoma attorney general was stripping the EPA of its “protection” rules and regulations under the guise of saving jobs. He was fulfilling the charge handed down by Donald J. Trump.

The other stuff relating to the conflicts of interests, high-end spending, wasteful policies, and a flouting of ethical standards was just too much.

I guess I have to give some credit to the young woman who confronted Pruitt the other day at the D.C. restaurant, challenging him to resign.

Perhaps he heeded her more than he let on.

Donald Trump vowed to “drain the swamp.” Pruitt, however, became the administration’s Swamp Creature. All the questions over his ethical conduct made it impossible for this man to stay in office.

Finally, we have some good news to report from the Trump administration. I fear it’ll be short-lived, given that the president’s mission to dismantle EPA’s rules aimed at protecting the environment remains intact.

national news

‘Trump-bashing’ to continue

Some readers of this blog — those who support Donald J. Trump — keep calling me out because I continue to “bash” the president.

Two answers are in order. The short answer: So what? The longer answer: There’s going to be more of it; allow me to explain.

Donald John Trump Sr. campaigned for the presidency with a campaign that was awash in insults and innuendo against his foes in the Republican Party primary, then against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and also against the media.

What he’s getting from critics, such as me, simply is a payback for the kind of campaign he waged to attain the nation’s highest office.

Never in my many years of watching politics at this level have I seen a politician employ such negativity, such anger, such outrage. Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017 by giving an abbreviated, but quite grim inaugural speech.

I didn’t hear a call to our nation’s better angels. I heard anger and rage at what he called the “American carnage.”

What does the president expect in return? He should have anticipated that the reaction from those on the other side of the vast political chasm would take the form it has taken.

O.n the very first day of his campaign, the day he announced his candidacy, Trump went for the throats of illegal immigrants, calling them “rapists, murderers and drug dealers,” while admitting “there are some fine people, I’m sure.”

That’s where it started. It is where he continued on his way to the GOP nomination and then to the election. It is the path he has chosen since he settled into the Oval Office.

Yes, I’m going to continue “bashing” the president. And, yes, I also am going to speak positively about him and his policies when circumstances merit it.

Believe it or not, I truly am tired of speaking badly of the president. I’ll let up when I feel like it.

legal news, national news, political news

Pure politics drives this SCOTUS nomination

The federal judiciary isn’t political? It isn’t driven by partisan politics?

Excuse me while I bust out laughing.

There. Now I feel better.

Donald J. Trump reportedly has narrowed his short list of U.S. Supreme Court justice candidates to an even shorter list. It’s good to ask: Do you think the president is poring over written opinions, legal scholarship and the candidates’ judicial records to help him make this pick?

I don’t believe that’s the case.

Unlike some of his predecessors — namely Barack H. Obama, who taught constitutional law before entering politics — this president depends seemingly exclusively on the politics of the moment and on whether he likes whoever he might select for a lifetime appointment to a federal judgeship.

This is a big one, folks.

Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal — is on the line. Do you believe the president has studied the implications of that ruling, that he understands its legality?

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s pending retirement gives Trump the chance to make his second Supreme Court appointment. Think of this, too: It’s only a year and a half since he took office. How many more appointments do you think this president can make before his time is up?

Then there’s the question of whether the Senate should consider this appointment before the midterm election. Given the masterful obstruction that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell performed to block Obama’s selection of Merrick Garland to succeed the late Antonin Scalia, there might be a push to delay this vote into 2019. Don’t bet on it, though, given polling that suggests Americans want the Senate to proceed.

I have one more issue to raise quickly. Trump said he won’t ask his court candidates how they would vote on reproductive rights. Do you take him at his word?

Neither do I.

The drama is about to get real thick.

entertainment news, Sports news

Hot dog gluttony … a sporting event? C’mon, man!

I noticed an item on ESPN.com that simply boggles my mind.

The renowned sports network has a link in which it tells us that Joey Chestnut has won the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Yep, Chestnut chowed down 74 franks and buns in 10 minutes. What a beast. What a manly man. What a hoss.

Here’s the question I have for you: This is a sporting event?

Read the ESPN.com story here.

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, after all, ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Thus, the “entertainment” aspect of the network’s mission makes this a sports spectacle.

As ESPN.com reported: “I found a vicious rhythm,” the 34-year-old Chestnut said after the stuffing session. “I was feeling good today.”

You go for it, chow hound.

I don’t get it.

I’m getting indigestion just writing about it.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 53

It’s settled. Toby the Puppy has proven to me that he has deductive reasoning skills.

I’ll give you a case in point.

When my wife and I leave our new home for any length of time — and we keep the puppy at home by himself — we return and are greeted with tail wags and lots of love at the door by Toby.

He doesn’t make a sound. He just is happy to see his parents return.

Now … when we all are together — my wife, Toby the Puppy and yours truly — and someone knocks on the door, Toby goes nuts. He barks angrily with a bark that belies his diminutive size. In other words, he sounds much bigger than he is. My wife and I are grateful that he isn’t a yipper/yapper dog. He sounds tough.

My point? It is that Toby knows to bark when his mother and I are with him; when he’s alone, he presumes that we are on the other side of the door waiting to walk in.

Yes, Toby is one smart puppy. I keep telling you this. Please take my word for it. He knows many things.

International news

Will Putin follow Kim’s lead in dealing with POTUS?

Kim Jong Un appears to have deceived the president of the United States. He pledged to “work toward” ending his nuclear weapons program, only to be revealed to have accelerated nuclear development at secret sites in North Korea.

Donald J. Trump is getting set to meet with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. They will meet one on one. Putin has met with four previous U.S. presidents at these high level summits; Trump is a rookie at it.

How are supposed to have faith that the president is going to fare any better with Putin than he did with Kim Jong Un?

I have zero faith. No surprise there, right?

Kim snookered Trump, or so it appears. Pure and simple. The president was waylaid by the young despot, who seemed to tell Trump what he wanted to hear — only to reveal his true character, if you want to call what he exhibits any form of “character.”

The New York Times’s David Sanger has written a fascinating piece on how Trump evolved from “fire and fury” to dismissing the North Korean threats. Read it here.

Kim went from Little Rocket Man to a man of peace, a man to be trusted, a “strong leader,” someone who “loves his people” who love him in return.

Trump hasn’t made such an about-face with Putin. He continues to talk about the Russian president in much the same manner he always has talked about him. Even in light of the Russian meddling in our 2016 presidential election!

This is a frightening time, man!

I’m frightened for the United States. I love my country too much to sit still while the president continues to get handed his head by foreign leaders.

International news

Trump is right: U.S. can’t be world’s piggy bank

Donald J. Trump is going to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting next week with a critical message.

The United States really cannot afford to be the “world’s piggy bank,” and that NATO’s other member nations need to shoulder a larger burden of their mutual defense agreement.

I don’t want the United States to pull out of NATO. Nor do I want there to be continued tension between the United States and the rest of the alliance.

But the president happens to make a valuable point about NATO and the burden that all its member nations need to shoulder.

Trump has sought to pressure NATO nations to increase their share of the cost of the alliance. Indeed, many of the wealthier nations in NATO — Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom come to mind — are able to shoulder more of the financial load.

I merely want the president to cease with the bellicose rhetoric and the threats — veiled and outright — of punishing our allies if they don’t do as he wishes.

The bottom line, though, suggests to me that the president is correct to insist on greater cost-sharing among the allies of this important mutual defense organization.

national news

How to celebrate The Fourth

I read the other day that Irving, Texas planned to place flags in front of every residence, business, house of worship, government building today to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day.

To which I say, “You go, Irving!” What a fantastic way to celebrate this birth!

The gold standard for community celebrations that I have witnessed up close remains Kenosha, Wisc. My wife and I took our then-infant son there in 1973, where we visited my wife’s Aunt Margaret and Uncle Joe.

Fourth of July that year allowed us to see how the city decks itself out. Kenosha did it right 45 years ago. We returned there in 2000, but it was a non-Fourth of July visit.

We drove around Kenosha in 1973 and noticed patriotic bunting hanging on thousands of dwellings and businesses; flags flew in front of thousands of those buildings.

The night of the Fourth, we went to the shore of Lake Michigan, where we witnessed a spectacular fireworks display in Kenosha and a bit north in Racine.

Oh … my.

That memory will remain with me forever.

national news

Happy birthday, America; you’re still great

Happy birthday, America.

You look pretty good for being 242 years of age. Allow me these brief thoughts as we light some fireworks, grill some chow outside in the summer heat and toast your ever-lasting and enduring greatness.

I want you to disregard the blathering of our current president, who campaigned for office and then took office vowing to “make America great again.” He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You’re still great. You’ve always been great.

And, yes, the 45th president isn’t the first occupant of that office to make such a claim. Others have done so. But this guy keeps harping on it. He wears that goofy “MAGA” hat at campaign rallies.

Now, even though we celebrate your greatness, America, I must concede that you haven’t been perfect. The founders said at the beginning of the Republic that “all men are created equal.”

They were short-sighted. Women weren’t allowed to vote. That right didn’t come until 1920, for crying out loud. Furthermore, many of the founders were slave holders. They held men, women and children in involuntary bondage.

You’ll recall, America, how we waged a bloody Civil War over slavery. We killed hundreds of thousands of Americans to preserve our Union and, yes, to free those enslaved families.

Civil rights battles have ensued. We marched in protest against wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. We endured a Great Depression. We were attacked at Pearl Harbor and then we went to war against tyranny in Europe and Asia.

We let our guard down on 9/11 and were attacked yet again by terrorists.

In spite of all that, we remain great. We allow people to complain openly about the government. We allow freedoms that other countries have emulated. We are free to worship as we please — or not worship at all if that’s what we choose.

We allow “due process” under the law. We grant liberty and freedom.

And despite what that president of ours insists, we remain a beacon that attracts immigrants from those around the world.

I am proud to be an American. I am proud of my country, warts and all. Believe me, America, you’ve grown a few more of them in recent years. However, I salute you.

Let’s all have a happy birthday, America.

national news

Trump ignites a new era of nastiness

1 Comment

Donald J. Trump won’t leave a warm and fuzzy presidential legacy.

I feel confident in saying so. He’ll leave office no doubt proclaiming all kinds of economic and foreign policy success.

He won’t, though, be able to declare victory in his stated pledge to “unify” the country after the contentious and bitter campaign that elected him president of the United States.

We are more divided than we’ve been in the past 50 years. More divided than Bush v. Gore and the Florida recount — and a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision — that decided the 2000 election; more than the impeachment in 1998 of President Clinton; more than the fight over the Affordable Care Act in 2010; more divided, even, than during the Vietnam War, when millions of Americans marched in protest against that conflict.

Trump took office and declared at his inaugural that the “American carnage” would end “right here and right now.” It hasn’t.

He has dragged public discourse into the gutter. He has ignited his Democratic Party foes to follow him there. Man, I regret that trend. We hear Democrats using Trump’s own words and behavior as justification for their attempts to out-shout the president and the Republicans.

Trump’s declaration that the media are the “enemy of the American people” has energized his base, which is totally fine with him.

Donald Trump is not the president of the entire nation; he speaks only to his base and speaks only in language that his base understands. They comprise something around 38 percent of all Americans. That’s enough to suit the president.

Does any of this portend a legacy that makes us proud?

Nope. Not as far as I’m concerned. I’m pretty sure a lot of other Americans feel the same way.