Monthly Archives: March 2019

national news

‘Otherwise blameless life’ has strange parallel

Paul Manafort has led an “otherwise blameless life,” according to the federal judge who sentenced him to 47 months in prison for bilking the government out of millions of dollars in taxes.

The federal sentencing guidelines recommended that Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman receive 19 to 25 years in the slammer.

Oh, but he’s had an “otherwise blameless life.” Fascinating, yes?

Well, I am struck by the seeming symmetry between that logic and something that the late Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., once said about the crime rate in his city.

His (dis)honor once said with a straight face that if you take away the murder rate in D.C., “the crime rate isn’t so bad.”

So, without all the bloodshed, “otherwise, the city is a nice place.”

local news, Sports news

Lights on at Hodgetown

Hey, I heard they turned on the lights at Hodgetown!

You know what that means? It means that when the Amarillo Sod Poodles open their AA minor league baseball season at home on April 8 they won’t be playing hardball in the dark.

Amarillo, Texas, is less than a month away from entering a new era of sports entertainment. The Sod Poodles are going to play ball at the downtown ballpark that is nearing completion along Buchanan Street, next to City Hall/the Civic Center and in the midst of a building boom that is still under way in the city’s downtown district.

I will be in Amarillo on opening night. My wife and I will be there to get our fifth wheel RV out of storage and take it on a jaunt downstate and on toward New Orleans.

But I just might sock a couple extra bucks in my pocket and get us a ticket or two for the Sod Poodles’ opening night game downtown.

I’ve been cheering this endeavor on for longer than I can remember. It’s only right to be there to watch ’em toss out the first pitch.

My strong sense is that the city is about to turn an important corner on its way toward economic revival.

national news

‘Blameless life’? Really, judge?

I am not going to get too worked up — just yet! — over the surprisingly light sentence handed to former Donald Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The federal judge who sentenced Manafort handed out a 47-month prison term for a guy who’s been convicted of tax fraud, mail fraud and all sorts of conspiracy charges. He bilked the nation out of millions of dollars in taxes.

But the judge said in his statement that Manafort — prior to getting hooked up with the Trump campaign — had led a “blameless life.”

A blameless life? Really, judge?

I guess that is his way of saying that as a “first-time offender,” Manafort was entitled to a federal prison sentence that is significantly briefer than the sentencing guideline that called for an 18- to 25-year term in the slammer.

I can think of a few “blameless” lives that ended badly for the men who committed heinous crimes. John Wilkes Booth? Timothy McVeigh? Sirhan Sirhan? Did any of those individuals turn up on anyone’s radar prior to their commission of heinous crimes?

So, Paul Manafort gets a nearly four-year prison term for lying and stealing. And, no, I am not equating what Manafort did with murder. I am only suggesting that the “blameless life” rationale doesn’t make sense.

Well, the former Trump campaign boss ain’t out of the wilderness. He’s got another sentence awaiting him for some more misdeeds he performed on behalf of his friend and former boss.

Then he might get what he deserves.

national news

Looks like Beto’s running for POTUS

If you put a gun to my head and said “Make your prediction about Beto O’Rourke … or else,” I am likely to say that Beto is running for president of the United States in 2020.

Why else would be stand in front of a South by Southwest crowd in Austin today and tell ’em he’s made up his mind, but just isn’t ready to divulge what he has decided to do.

It sounds to me as though O’Rourke is lining up his ducks, assembling his campaign organization.

Run, Beto, run?

I mean, think about it! Were he not going to run, why would he have any reason to delay announcing a decision. If he’s going to stay home, find other work, do something else he would just say so. Isn’t that right? Does that make as much sense to you as it does to me?

So, Beto — who nearly beat Sen. Ted Cruz for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas in 2018 — likely is going to jump into the massive and still growing Democratic Party primary field that wants to challenge Donald John Trump for president.

I beg you, though, dear reader. Please don’t hold me to this if O’Rourke decides to stay home in El Paso.

My so-called “prediction” is based on a hypothetical circumstance. Please remember that if he decides against running for president.

entertainment news

The Beatles’ legacy will live . . . forever!

ALLEN, Texas — So, I walked into a sporting goods store today with my sis and her husband. We made a purchase and walked to the checkout counter.

The young man took one look at my Beatles shirt and said, “Hey, I love your shirt. I am named after one of those guys.”

I looked at his name tag with the name: Lennon.

What in the world? Yes, his dad is a major Beatles fan. So is the young man, who I figure might be 20 years of age.

“Do you know how John Lennon died?” I asked. “Oh yes. I’ve been told all about it. I have read all about it.”

My sis told the young man how we — she and I — attended a Beatles concert in Portland, Ore., in August 1965. “Front-row center seats,” she told him. Lennon wanted to know how we liked it “with all the screaming.” It was a challenge to hear anything, I mentioned.

Sis told him George was her favorite Beatle.

Lennon said his mom wanted to name his brother after Paul McCartney. I wondered: Huh? Well, I suppose he could be called “Mac.” Lennon’s parents ended up naming his sibling something else.

And so . . . I received yet another example of how the music of my generation lives forever. The Beatles’ legacy will live on for as long as human beings are able to listen to music.

I know he’s not the only child — or grandchild — of those who grew up listening to those fellows.

As I reminded young Lennon, “These guys (pointing to the image on my shirt) helped raise me.”

economic news

Just wondering: Who’s running the OMB?

I cannot stop thinking about the fellow who is serving as acting chief of staff at the White House.

Mick Mulvaney waltzed into the West Wing to take over as chief of staff after John Kelly was either (a) fired, (b) asked to quit or (c) resigned in a huff because he couldn’t control anything.

Donald Trump said Mulvaney would become “acting” chief of staff, which is strange on its face. Normally presidents wouldn’t have any difficulty finding a permanent COS. Mulvaney, though, already has a full-time job as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The OMB gig is a huge undertaking as it is.

Now he is running the White House per the president’s instruction.

Who, though, is running the OMB? Who is putting a pencil to the staggering deficit that is growing ominously, even though the president promised to bring the budget into balance — albeit over a serious length of time.

Does this mean, therefore, that we no longer have a permanent WH chief of staff and a director of the Office and Management and Budget? I keep wondering about who is minding the OMB store while the boss is at the White House trying to make sense of the chaos inside the West Wing.

media news

Trump keeps making media the ‘story’

I long have considered it a terrible journalistic sin for the media to become part of the story they are covering.

I worked in the media for nearly four decades and I managed over that span of time to steer clear of any discussion of an issue I was covering. Occasionally an organization that employed me would get entangled in the story; they would manage to wriggle themselves free.

The Age of Trump has produced an entirely different dynamic.

He labels the media the “enemy of the people.” His followers buy into it. They demonstrate in front of cable, broadcast and print reporters seeking only to do their job.

It’s getting weird to watch the news these days and hear all these references to cable networks involved so deeply in the covering of current events. For instance:

  • Fox News Channel has been banned from Democratic primary presidential debates because it has become a virtual arm of the Trump administration. Its commentators are known to be in constant communication with Donald Trump, reportedly offering policy advice to the president.
  • CNN, MSNBC are on the other end of the spectrum. Their commentators take great delight in chastising their colleagues at Fox. Meanwhile, Fox fires back at their competitors/colleagues. Oh, and the president hangs “fake news” labels on all media that report news that he finds disagreeable.

It all reminds of an athletic event where the attention turns to the referee. You want to concentrate on the athletes, not the individuals who discern whether they’re breaking the rules.

We’re concentrating increasingly on the media reporting of the issues at hand, and less so on the actual issues that are being discussed.

It’s a distressing trend that appears — to my way of thinking — to have no possible exit for the media.

Donald Trump

‘I, alone, can fix it’

This image showed up overnight on my Facebook feed.

It speaks to the absences among many key advisory posts in Donald Trump’s administration.

I agree with the notion that he has “no clue.” However, think of this for just a moment:

He told the entire world at the Republican Party’s presidential nominating convention in the summer of 2016 that “I, alone, can fix” the problems bedeviling the United States of America.

OK, so Trump has an “acting” chief of staff; he has nominated a U.N. envoy, as he has nominated a defense chief.

Still it does seem quite possible that, before the end of his presidency, he’ll get a chance to show the world whether he “alone” can fix anything.

national news

POTUS autographing Bibles? Oh, sure . . . you bet!

I held out a glimmer of hope that Donald Trump would travel this week to Alabama to tour tornado damage, throw his arms around victims, tell them he loves them and not do anything peculiar.

That was not to be.

The man with the least amount of understanding and familiarity with the contents of the Holy Bible of any president of the United States autographed copies of the Good Book for those who waited in line to receive his signature.

Social media exploded over that one!

The spectacle — while not nearly as weird as the paper towel-throwing stunt he performed in Puerto Rico in 2017 — did seem, um, peculiar.

Normally, one autographs books they have written.  Donald Trump appears to have utterly zero understanding of what the Bible instructs those of us who follow the teachings of the prophets and, oh yes, of Jesus Christ himself.

As the Huffington Post reports:

It was an unusual move. Typically, people autograph books they’ve written. 

The Bibles may have been the closest things on hand for Trump to sign during his visit. Volunteers had their own, and Bibles were also being distributed at the Providence Baptist Church in Opelika along with clothing and other goods, according to The Associated Press.

The community has mobilized in the wake of the EF-4 tornado that struck rural Beauregard last Sunday and killed 23. It was the deadliest tornado in the nation since 2013.

Trump perked up the church crowd, which cheered when he autographed the cover of a 12-year-old boy’s Bible. The president and Melania Trump together signed the cover of 10-year-old girl’s Bible decorated with pink camouflage. One woman at the church called Trump’s visit a “godsend,” according to pool reports.

The Post notes that religious scholars are split. They say past presidents, such as George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, have signed Bibles. Others call it an act that borders on “sacrilege.”

I don’t know. It just seemed to my way of thinking a bit . . . bizarre.

Those who were gathered at the Opelika, Ala., church were happy to receive the autograph. They’re hurting and perhaps were looking for any token of comfort they could get from the president.

I’ll leave this issue with one of the Twitter responses: “When a man embodies all 7 deadly sins — lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride — is signing Bibles it means it is time to re-evaluate your religion.” 

national news

It’s no longer ‘Shine’-ing in WH communications office

Bill Shine is gone from the White House communications office.

He’s the fifth such communications director to come and go in little more than two years of the Donald Trump administration.

What gives here?

Shine is moving to the Trump re-election campaign as a senior adviser. He gets to spend more time with his family, or so it’s been reported.

As for the communications operation, well . . . this White House needs one. Badly. Bigly. Whatever. However, it doesn’t exist.

No more Shine at WH

It’s fair to ask: Does the president want a communications operation? He damn sure needs one, given the chaos and confusion that emanates daily — if not hourly — from the White House.

Tradition has been tossed into the crapper by this president. One traditional item involves a communications office that coordinates the message being delivered by the White House. It ain’t happening with this operation.

The president sends out a Twitter message communicating policy on a whim and an impulse. The communications office is caught flat-footed, unable to catch up with what Trump is saying.

Shine came aboard after serving a stint as an executive with the Fox News Channel, the president’s media outlet of choice. I guess Shine’s Fox connection wasn’t enough to keep him at his new White House post for very long.

The word is that Trump and Shine never really developed much of a bond. Imagine that. Near as I can tell, the president doesn’t develop personal bonds with anyone who’s not named “Trump” or who is not married to someone with a Trump name.

Whatever future awaits this president, the smart money now suggests that Donald Trump well might be his own communications director.

Oh . . . brother. This’ll be fun to watch.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience