Monthly Archives: October 2018

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 59: Speaking in complete sentences

I know I am repeating myself, but I’ll do so anyway: Toby the Puppy is the smartest canine God ever created.

He demonstrate this morning what I mean.

We had a visitor early today. Our younger son stopped by at the start of his day to have a cup of coffee and a pastry with his mother and me.

I told Toby about 20 minutes before our son’s arrival to be sure “not to bark. It’s going to be your “brother,” and when he knocks on the door, you don’t need to bark. Have you got that?” That pretty much repeats what I told him.

I mentioned it to Toby because the drill usually goes something like this: When my wife and I are inside our residence, Toby barks at the knock on the door; when either of us is coming into our place, Toby knows instinctively its either his “mother” or me. He doesn’t bark.

Today, when our son knocked on the door … Toby was quiet. He didn’t bark. He wagged his tail and when his “brother” walked in, Toby delivered the requisite licks — and then brought one of his fetch toys for our son to throw for Toby to retrieve.

What staggers me at this moment as I recall this bit of brilliance from our puppy is that I spoke to him in complete sentences, kind of like the way Lassie’s family talked to her, or the way Flipper the fish, er, dolphin would receive instructions on how to save a boater from disaster.

I’m tellin’ ya, this puppy continues to amaze me every single day. 

media news

Trump salutes ‘great friends’ at Fox

Take all the time you need to come up with an answer to this question: When was the last time you heard a president of the United States salute his “great friends” at a major mainstream media organization?

I know. You can’t remember it. Neither can I.

Yet there he was at an Iowa campaign rally, hollering about all his “great friends” at the Fox News Channel, which has become a sort of de facto state-run media outlet. Fox News is the preferred cable news and commentary network of Donald Trump. Why? Because its commentary gives the president a pass — virtually — on all the mistakes, missteps, misstatements and miscues he commits on a daily basis. Fox doesn’t call the president out on all the lies he tells, nor does it question the policy decisions he makes.

So the president has “great friends” there. He cited Jeannine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Steve Doocy and how they use the term “Dims” to describe Democrats. Funny, huh? Aww, not really.

The media aren’t supposed to be “friends” with politicians, let alone with presidents of the United States. They are charged with asking tough questions, of holding public officials accountable for their actions and rhetoric. Every president prior to Donald Trump has recognized that necessary role the media play in maintaining the strength of our system of government.

This guy, Trump? He labels tough questioners to be purveyors of “fake news” and relies on the feel-good “reporting” he gets from his “friends at Fox News.”

Very weird, man.

national news

Candidate drops out to deal with PTSD

It isn’t every day that a rising political star puts his future on hold because of post traumatic stress disorder.

That is what a young Missouri politician has done. He deserves a good word of support as he wages his struggle.

Jason Kander was running to be the next mayor of Kansas City, Mo. He had served as Missouri secretary of state and in the Missouri House of Representatives. He was considered a rising Democratic Party star. In 2016, Kander lost a race for the U.S. Senate narrowly to Republican incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt.

But before he entered politics, Kander served his country in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer in Iraq. He saw combat in that part of the world and came home suffering from PTSD and depression.

Then he decided early this month to forgo his mayoral campaign. He wants to be seek treatment for his PTSD and for a cure to the depression he experiences.

I remember when another Missouri politician, the late U.S. Sen. Tom Eagleton, was drummed off the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket in 1972 because he sought electro-shock treatment to battle his own depression. That was a shameful response to a politician’s battle — for which he said at the time he was cured.

Now we have another pol seeking treatment for PTSD and depression. My hope is that he, too, will win his own fight and then he can get back into the arena if that remains his life’s calling. Perhaps he can lend an empathetic voice to those who believe our veterans stricken with PTSD need the government they fought to protect will do its part to deliver them from the ravages of war.

We have come a long way in the way we handle these matters, don’t you think?

State news

How do foes become such good ‘friends’?

Politicians have this uncanny and maddening knack of burying the hatchet — and not in each others’ backs or skulls.

They campaign against each other, say some highly critical — even hurtful and hateful — things to and about each other. Then they declare winners and losers and all is forgiven. Ostensibly, at least.

They all do it. Democrats do it to each other, as do Republicans.

The latest example of this is in Texas, where GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is fighting for re-election to his seat against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

Cruz is enlisting the aid of a man he once labeled as “amoral,” a “pathological liar” and a “coward.”

Yes, I refer to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, against whom Cruz campaigned for the presidency in the 2016 GOP primary. You see, candidate Trump had called Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” he implied that Cruz’s father might have been involved in President Kennedy’s murder and then he posted that hideous photo on Twitter of Cruz’s wife, Heidi.

Cruz was rightfully enraged, outraged and aghast at the treatment. That’s when he hung those epithets on his GOP foe.

Now he’s wanting Trump to campaign for him. All is forgiven. The sniveling sucking up that Cruz is performing hasn’t gone unnoticed out here in the rest of the state and the nation.

Frankly, he was right to say what he said about Trump during the GOP primary campaign. He is demonstrating a lack of spine now as he seeks the president’s help in his fight for re-election.

Sickening, man.

national news

Kanye West: presidential adviser?

I do not mean to denigrate Kanye West, who I guess is a pretty good rapper/singer/reality TV celebrity spouse.

But it’s fair to ask this question. Doesn’t the president of the United States have more credible experts with whom to consult on matters such as gang violence, prison reform and, oh, whatever else he and Kanye West are going to discuss at the White House?

West is going to meet with Donald Trump in the White House to talk about the big things. I guess he’s also going to get some love from Trump over the stated support that West has given to the president, which likely explains why he’s been invited to the White House in the first place.

This is the kind of publicity stunt that Trump craves. I’m sure you’ll recall how West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, ventured into the Oval Office to plead for the release of a woman who had been imprisoned wrongly for a drug violation. Trump commuted the woman’s sentence and Kardashian basked in the credit she received for making it happen.

It was a reality star-meet-reality star moment for the president, whose prior claim to fame was as the host of “Celebrity Apprentice,” yet another so-called “reality” TV series.

Now he’s welcoming Kanye West to the White House.

I don’t know about you, but there surely must be more legitimate experts with whom Trump can consult on prison reform and gang violence.

If only they would agree to meet with this president.

national news

Ivanka won’t seek UN job. Fine, but who would want it?

Ivanka Trump says she won’t be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

She wrote this on Twitter: It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me.

That’s good to hear. Why? Well, for starters, Ivanka Trump is nowhere close to being qualified for the job that Nikki Haley is leaving at the end of the year. Her only credential is that she is a product of the president’s loins. Period. End of story.

She wouldn’t acknowledge, of course, that any such appointment would be totally inappropriate and that it would hand this highly critical diplomatic post to someone who has no business serving in any official adviser capacity in the White House.

Yet the president, Daddy Trump, has said she would be terrific. She’s up to the job. She’s the tops … he says.

I now will quote fictional Col. Sherman T. Potter: Buffalo bagels.

The task now for the president is to find someone who can work within an administration that suffers from maximum chaos and confusion. What’s more, the president is now being served by a national security adviser, John Bolton, who once said of the UN that you could “lose the top 10 floors” of the UN building and not lose a thing. Oh, and that quip came from a guy, Bolton, who served as ambassador to the United Nations.

The next UN ambassador will have to work with Bolton. And with a president who still has to exhibit any understanding at any level of the nuances of international diplomacy.

Who will Trump nominate for this job? That remains the latest parlor game to occupy idle minds in Washington, D.C. He’ll boast about being able to select from an enormous pool of applicants. Of course, we have no way to know about the size of that pool.

Trump will tell us his applicant pool is h-u-u-u-uge and many Americans will believe him. I won’t.

As for Ivanka’s decision to take herself out of running, man, I hope she can tell her father privately in no uncertain terms that she really and truly means it.

She won’t replace Nikki Haley.

national news

Haley exits in non-Trumpian style

I have to hand it to United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Her resignation, which she announced today in the Oval Office sitting next to the president of the United States, was done without the usual rhetorical public flogging that has accompanied so many of previous Cabinet officials’ departures.

Donald Trump, for instance, notified former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of his firing via Twitter. That came after several days of public speculation about what his future held.

Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt endured weeks of publicity regarding his use of public money; former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price endured much the same kind of (mis)treatment; Veterans Secretary David Shulkin was hung out to dry before he got shown the door.

And, of course, we have staff-level jobs that changed hands in messy, turbulent manners. Chief of staff Reince Priebus, national security advisers Michael Flynn and H.R. McMaster, communications director Anthony Scaramucci, press secretary Sean Spicer … all left amid chaos and confusion.

Haley’s departure was vastly different. It came as a legitimate surprise to the media and to many Trump administration officials.

It goes to show, I suppose, that it actually is possible for the president to keep a secret, given that he knew of her plans to depart several days in advance. It also is possible for him to announce a key administration departure with a semblance of class.

Will it continue? Do not bet the farm on it.

Uncategorized

‘Tough as Texas’? Sure thing, Sen. Cruz

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is saying Beto O’Rourke isn’t Texan enough for Texas voters, that the state needs someone in the U.S. Senate who is as “tough as Texas.”

Cruz is the guy?

Get a load of this short video.

Tough as Texas

An actor, Sonny Carl Davis, says this: “If somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn’t be kissing their ass. You stick a finger in their chest and give ’em a few choice words. Or you drag their ass out by he woodshed and kick their ass, Ted. Come on, Ted.”

Ted is as tough as Texas? Hmm. Hardly.

Donald Trump called him “Lyin’ Ted” and said Cruz’s father was seen talking to Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before Oswald murdered President Kennedy. And then we have that ghastly Twitter message that Trump sent out regarding Heidi Cruz.

It all enraged Sen. Cruz in the moment, when he and Trump were competing for the Republican Party presidential primary nomination.

Then Trump won. He got elected president and Cruz has become one of Trump’s staunchest political allies.

That’s not very “tough as Texas,” Sen. Cruz.

Now the senator is in the fight of his political life against O’Rourke, the Democratic challenger from El Paso.

I guess maybe I ought to add that O’Rourke was born in El Paso; Cruz was born in … um … Canada.

International news

Haley is out as UN envoy; let’s wait for the rush to replace her

Nikki Haley’s resignation as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations opens up a whole new round of speculation about who should succeed her.

I want to stipulate that I am unhappy to see Haley leave this critical post. She is a pro and she comported herself well as the nation’s top UN diplomat. I like the way she stood up to White House chief of staff John Kelly after he said she had gotten “confused” in announcing White House sanctions against Russia; her response: “I don’t get confused.”

Nikki Haley is a grownup in an administration populated by too many sycophants.

But here’s what I am waiting to hear. I am waiting to hear the president tell us of the dozens, maybe hundreds, of qualified applicants pounding on his door wanting to succeed Haley as the UN envoy. You see, he has this maddening habit of embellishing the reputation he and his administration have among career government employees.

The search begins

I have no doubt that Donald Trump will seek to oversell his administration’s standing as he seeks to find someone to replace Haley, who will leave her post at the end of the year.

I am chuckling at the chatter that his son-in-law Jared Kushner is among those who might succeed Haley. Even more ridiculous is that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, might get the nod.

If the president’s need to beat back the horde of applicants is true, then he should be able to find a top-tier, high-quality nominee to succeed Haley at the UN. If he settles on yet another sycophant — say, someone like Kushner or — God forbid — Ivanka, then we’ll know he is lying about that as well.

I’ll lament the pending departure of Nikki Haley in the meantime and wish her well as she takes “time off” and considers her next calling. A former two-term South Carolina governor who stood up to the Confederate flag proponents in her state and performed well on the international stage likely has a bright future.

national news

Where is the outrage?

Hang on just a doggone minute … or two!

Donald Trump flew on Air Force One this week with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They talked at length, reportedly, about this and/or that. Rosenstein at this moment is up to his eyeballs in an investigation involving the president’s 2016 campaign and whether it “colluded” with Russians who attacked our electoral system.

I’ll now flash back to that election year. Former President Bill Clinton met on an airplane with then-AG Loretta Lynch. They reportedly talked about grandkids and other personal matters. The Justice Department was investigating that e-mail matter involving the ex-president’s wife, Hillary Clinton, who was running for president herself.

Republicans went ballistic. They became apoplectic, accusing the former president of trying to influence the AG. Indeed, the ex-president had no direct say in anything involving the DOJ.

GOP pols didn’t believe him and Loretta Lynch when they said they didn’t discuss anything about the e-mail matter.

Where is the outrage now, with the current president meeting at length with the current deputy AG who is involved in an on-going investigation into the president?

Hypocrisy, anyone?