Monthly Archives: April 2019

business news, national news

Tax returns? Give ’em up, Mr. POTUS

U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal has the law on his side, or so it would appear.

The Massachusetts Democrat is using his power as a congressional committee chairman to get his hands on Donald Trump’s tax returns. He is citing a statute that requires the Internal Revenue Service to hand over any request that comes from Congress.

The president’s lawyers say the chairman is overstepping his bounds.

C’mon. Let’s settle this thing.

Turn them over

Donald Trump has pledged to turn over the returns once the IRS completed a “routine audit.” That audit was under way in 2015. It takes three years to conduct a routine audit? I do no think so, no matter how “big” the numbers are that Trump has suggested.

It has been matter of political custom — not the law — for presidents to release their tax returns, to open them up for public review. The custom began in 1976 after the Watergate scandal had driven President Nixon from office.

We needed to know then — and we do today — how our presidents earn their income, to whom they might be indebted, and whether they are paying their fair share of taxes. They are, after all, demanding — along with Congress — that the rest of us pay our fair share.

I’m going to set aside for the purposes of this post any discussion of The Russia Thing.

I want to know all I deserve to know — which I happen to believe is a lot — about the president’s fortune. How he amassed it. I want to know whether he skirted federal tax law. I want to know about his debt obligations; after all, Trump said he is “the king of debt.”

None of this should be kept secret from the nation he was elected to lead. Donald Trump, though, is now going back on his pledge to release those returns. He has unleashed his legal team to fight Chairman Neal’s request for the returns.

If the president has nothing to hide — which he has declared many times — then he should have no difficulty showing us what those returns contain. Isn’t that what clean-as-a-whistle politicians do?

International news

No, Mr. POTUS: The U.S. isn’t ‘full’

Mr. President, how many times do we have to tell you that your anti-immigrant rhetoric is un-American?

Your recent trip to the California-Mexico border contained more of the same, tired rhetoric about how you intend to crack down on illegal immigration, how you want to stop drug traffickers from entering the United States and how you no longer want asylum seekers to even bother making the effort to escape oppression in their home countries.

You said the country is “full.” There’s no more room at the proverbial inn? Is that what you mean?

So now you give Mexico a year to shut down the illegal drug trade before you carry out your threat to “close the border.” Yeah, I heard you say that “I’m not messing around.”

Then you “mess around” by backing off on your shut it down now mantra by declaring you intention to wait a year? Do you know what that tells me, Mr. President? It tells me your initial threat was as phony as all the other threats you fire out there.

You said you want to repeal the Affordable Care Act now. Then you say you want to wait until after the November 2020 presidential election. Same thing, Hoss. That initial threat was hollow. It was phony. Bogus. It was full of crap.

Mr. President, the United States is not full. We comprise about 3.7 million square miles. We are a big and until now a welcoming country. Hey, my grandparents — all four of them — came here in search of a better life than what they had in southern Europe. They found it and contributed more to the advancement of the American ideal than you’ll ever contribute.

They believed in the American dream. You were born into immense wealth and you believe in personal enrichment.

You may stop the bloviating and the bluster about shutting down our southern border. You are now more than welcome to stop proclaiming that the door is now shut, that the “United States is full.”

No sir. It isn’t.

national news

Just apologize, Joe Biden

Joe Biden looks and sounds like someone who is going to run for president of the United States in 2020.

Before he does, though, the former vice president needs to perform one simple but significant task. He needs to apologize to all those who might have felt uncomfortable as they received touchy-feely greetings from the longtime public official.

You know the story. Some women have disclosed that the former VP got a little too close for comfort to them. He grabbed them by the shoulders, got in their faces, kissed some of them on the top of their heads.

Did he commit an act of sexual deviancy? Did he assault them, as others in public life have done or have been accused of doing (such as the current president of the United States)? No. He hasn’t.

And in my view these acts that Biden allegedly did are not disqualifiers if he wants to run for the presidency.

However, the video he released in which he said “I get” that social norms have changed since he entered the national scene in 1972 as a young U.S. senator, doesn’t go quite far enough.

Biden should say he is sorry for what he did. By saying he is sorry, I don’t mean he should offer one of those lame “I am sorry if I offended” someone, or “I am sorry to those who are offended.”

He needs to say, “I am sorry for my actions. I regret them terribly. I have learned my lesson. I pledge to be a better man.”

If he does that, then he should launch his campaign . . . and go full throttle in a quest to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He is not my ideal candidate to defeat Donald Trump, but he would take a huge step toward that goal by saying he is sorry for the way he has behaved.

national news

Yes, it’s personal . . . so what?

2 Comments

Those who comprise Donald Trump’s base of supporters seem fond of criticizing those of us on the other side of the great divide for harboring what they call “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

I get it. I understand how they must feel. Indeed, I have harbored similar feelings aimed in the opposite direction. They, too, have felt much the same toward politicians I have supported over the years.

I’ve tried to keep quiet about it. I have acknowledged in prior blog posts concerning the president that, yes, it is personal with me. I detest the idea that this charlatan, carnival barker, amoral ignoramus won an Electoral College victory in 2016. It still boggles my noggin that he managed to eke out a victory despite the utter absence of any semblance of public service commitment during his entire adult life.

I just wish those in his camp — and a few of them read this blog — would refrain from tossing stones at those of us who feel as strongly as we do about this individual. For them to say such things out loud ignores the obvious history we all witnessed during past presidential administrations.

Yes, this kind of “derangement syndrome” swings in both directions. It cases a wide arc of distrust, resentment and disrespect.

It goes with the territory.

I believe it’s what one might call, um . . .  politics.

media news

Community icon up for sale . . . this is a shame

We have returned to the community we called “home” for more than two decades and I am saddened to know what I know about the place that provided me with a nice income — and untold joy — for most of that time here.

The Amarillo Globe-News building — indeed, the entire complex of buildings — is on the market. It’s being sold. To someone who will make use of the property on the black between Ninth and 10th avenues and Van Buren and Harrison streets.

The Globe-News has vacated the site, moving into an antiseptic suite of offices down the street and around the corner at the 31-story bank building that towers over downtown Amarillo, Texas.

I saw a social media post the other day that said McCartt and Associates, a big-time commercial real estate broker, has listed the G-N site.

I guess the powers that be didn’t take my advice. I sought in an earlier blog post to persuade Morris Communications Corp., which used to own the newspaper but which still owns the physical property, to donate the site to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, which could turn the property into — what else? — a museum honoring the rich tradition of print journalism in the Texas Panhandle.

I thought that Old Man Morris — William Morris III — could make good on his oft-stated pledge to support the community. Hey, here was his chance. He gave up on newspaper publishing, but he could have given the property to the PPHM to do something honorable and noble with a building that used to symbolize an honorable and noble craft.

Indeed, the Globe-News used to have a plaque on the side of one of its buildings honoring the work of the late Tommy Thompson, the iconic editor of the evening Globe-Times. All he did, of course, was win a Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, which is the top prize offered by the top print journalism organization in the country, if not the world.

The Pulitzer jury honored Thompson for his dogged reporting in rooting out county government corruption. So he received the 1961 Meritorious Public Service prize.

I was proud to be associated with an organization that could claim such an honor. My association with the Globe-News ended in 2012. I held out hope that he paper would survive and be reborn in this changing media climate. I am fearing far less hopeful today.

Morris sold the paper to Gatehouse Media. The Globe-News’s reporting and editing staff has been decimated. Morris started the gutting years ago; Gatehouse is finishing the job.

Now the paper that once stood proudly on that downtown block is being offered to someone who will do something with the vacant hulk of a structure.

At least, though, those of us who have moved on will have our memories of the pride we threw into our work on behalf of the community we served.

business news

Knock off the BS, Mr. POTUS, about those tax returns

If I may borrow a phrase that Donald Trump has used on the political rally stump . . .

Suggesting that an alleged Internal Revenue Service audit of his tax returns prevents him from releasing them to the public is pure, unadulterated bullsh**!

The president has been all over the pea patch on this matter.

He refused to release the returns when he announced his candidacy in 2015; he said he would do so when the “routine” audit was complete. Three years later, we still haven’t seen them. He has said he would release them, then he has reversed himself. The House Ways and Means Committee has ordered the IRS to release them. Special counsel Robert Mueller might have obtained them during his 22-month investigation into The Russia Thing. Now the president would have us believe the IRS is still auditing him.

Now he’s threatening to fight their release.

Why? Is there something to hide?

He has said repeatedly he has nothing to keep secret. For its part, the IRS says an audit does not preclude a release of tax returns.

Donald Trump, moreover, has yet to produce a letter acknowledging that the IRS is even auditing his returns, which makes many millions of believe that Trump is lying — imagine that, will ya? — about the audit.

Americans have every right to demand that the president release his returns, given the role he plays in the setting of tax policy.

I am one of those Americans.

I demand to see those returns. Turn ’em over, Mr. President!

education news

If I were able to vote for Amarillo school trustee . . .

I would vote against the Amarillo Independent School District board of trustees incumbents who are running for re-election. However, I cannot, given that I have moved away from Amarillo.

Although I do have a voice, using this blog.

Which brings me to an interesting point.

Amarillo ISD residents cast their school trustee votes under a plan called “cumulative voting.” The voting plan was the result of a settlement the school district reached years ago with Latino groups that had sued the school system over what they thought was inadequate Latino representation on the board.

Here’s how it works: Three trustee positions are being decided in May. Voters have a chance to parcel votes in varying combinations. They can cast all three votes for one; they can cast two votes for one candidate and one for another; they can cast a single vote for each candidate.

Two of the three candidates are incumbents seeking re-election. From my faraway vantage point, I believe the incumbents do not deserve to be sent back to office. They have mishandled — and are continuing to mishandle — the matter involving the resignation of Kori Clements, the former Amarillo High School girls volleyball coach who quit while citing interference by a parent who sought to pressure the coach to give her daughter more playing time. Clements’ resignation letter cited a lack of board and administration support.

This story is far from over.

A resident filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency, which kicked the issue back to the school district. A coalition of parents has formed to seek an independent inquiry into the conduct that forced Clements to resign from the vaunted high school athletic program.

In the meantime, the school district is conducting an election in May. Two incumbents, Jim Austin and John Betancourt, are running along with five other candidates; incumbent Robin Malone also is running unopposed in a “special election.”

Amarillo voters can change the makeup of their public school board next month. Given what I believe has been a serious mishandling of the coaching controversy, they have it within their power to make a fundamental change in the makeup of their school system’s governing body.

As for where this coaching controversy is heading . . . my trick knee and couple of little Amarillo birdies are telling me there will be more tales to tell. I believe we should stay tuned.

political news

How does Trump plan to make his re-election case?

Donald J. Trump is going to ask Americans to re-elect him to another term as president of the United States. I am baffled to the max over this question: How is he going to make the case that he has earned a second term?

Trump got elected in 2016 by demonizing his opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton and by stoking fear of enemies outside of our borders and of those within them. He promised to vanquish them all. He told us that “I, alone” can repair all that ailed the nation.

Well, he hasn’t.

He has been bedeviled by questions concerning his relationships — business, personal and political — with foreign governments. He claims today that he has been “exonerated.” He hasn’t been cleared of anything. That’s another story.

As he ramps up his re-election campaign, Donald Trump is facing a critical question. How is he going to sell himself for another four years in the White House?

I am reminded a bit of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who ran for re-election as governor in 1994 against a political novice, a fellow named George W. Bush. Richards was thought of at the time to be highly popular. She had good — if not great — public approval ratings.

She made a critical error during her first term. She vetoed legislation that would have referred a concealed handgun carry bill to the voters for their endorsement. The veto enraged gun enthusiasts.

More than that, though, Richards hardly spoke of how she would govern during a second term. She spent a lot of public time blasting George W. Bush, calling him a lightweight and a “jerk.” Bush remained focused on his campaign themes.

Bush ended up winning. Richards was gone.

There ought to be a lesson for Trump here. Except that he won’t accept it. He won’t campaign on a second-term vision because, in my view, he doesn’t have one. Heck, he didn’t have a first-term vision, other than banning Muslims from traveling to this country, building The Wall along our southern border and eliminating the Affordable Care Act.

He stoked fear and loathing. He appealed to our darker instincts.

Is he going to brighten his vision for the future? Hah! Hardly! A 70-something-year-old man isn’t likely to change the strategy that won him election to the first public office he ever sought.

In my humble view, these basic tenets remain the same today as they were when Trump rode down the Trump Tower escalator to announce his presidential candidacy:

  • Donald Trump is unfit at every level imaginable to be president.
  • Trump will continue to be the fear monger in chief.
  • He will continue to lie incessantly.
  • Trump will demonize his opponents in the most venal, disgusting, disgraceful, personal terms.

Donald Trump doesn’t deserve re-election any more than he deserved election in the first place. I intend to do everything within my meager power — through this forum — to make that case.

national news

Should POTUS shut up or keep yammering?

Brian Krassenstein is a blogger who is active on Twitter, which he uses to state his anti-Donald Trump views to the world.

He wrote this:

As Trump and his supporters attack Joe Biden for making women feel uncomfortable and then apologizing for it, it’s a great time for a Trump quote:

“I moved on her like a b**ch… when you’re a star, they let you do it. Grab them by the pu**y, you can do anything.”

Yes, those words came from the man who would become president of the United States. We heard those words just days before the 2016 presidential election. Many of us had hope they would sink the Trump candidacy, sending it to the bottom of some trench.

It didn’t. He was elected anyway. He won 80,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton in three key states that gave him the Electoral College majority he needed to win the presidency.

Trump’s attack on Joe Biden over allegations that he made women feel “uncomfortable” is going to persist. The Trump base of voters won’t care that he said the things that Krassenstein reported.

Shame on the future president. Shame on those who endorsed him.

Given that he cannot keep his trap shut, I guess we’ll just let POTUS keep on spouting the crap he wants to let fly.

environmental news

Wind turbines cause cancer? Gosh! Who knew?

1 Comment

I have heard the complaints and criticism of wind energy.

It’s too expensive to produce wind-powered KWH. The turbines are a “blight” on our landscape. They get in the way of migrating birds.

Those criticisms are understandable. Donald Trump has actually referred to the fowl casualties that the turbines inflict.

However, the president said in a campaign rally speech that the turbine noise causes cancer. Yes. He said it with a straight face. I am left to presume that he believes what he said.

He is wrong. Of course! No surprise there. I won’t accuse him of uttering another bald-faced lie. He well might not actually know of what he speaks. Ignorance of a topic is one way to excuse someone of actually lying. So I’ll give him (sort of) a pass on the lying part.

However, when the president purports to know about something that flies out of his mouth, he actually ought to know it.

Thus, the Ignoramus in Chief doesn’t know anything about wind energy. Such as what he said about its unreliability. Why? Because the wind doesn’t always blow.

What he failed to acknowledge is that wind producers store excess energy generated by wind turbines to use on those days when the wind doesn’t blow sufficiently to produce more electricity.

Then again, that’s just his ignorance showing itself.

The cancer-causing element is pretty damn serious. Donald Trump should know better than to say something about which he knows nothing. He excuses himself, I am going to presume, because he’s the president of the United States. I guess that entitles him to say whatever he feels like saying.

If so, I feel the need to remind the commander in chief that his position as the world’s most powerful politician requires him to at least give more than a smidgen of thought before popping off.