Monthly Archives: April 2019

International news, religious news

If you can believe it, hope emerges from Notre Dame tragedy

The world is still recovering from the shock of the fire that ravaged the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the center of Paris.

The iconic church’s steeple collapsed. Its roof caved in. The interior was engulfed in flames. That’s the bad news.

However, the twin towers are still standing. The sanctuary’s crucifix is, too. Many of the church’s most cherished artifacts have been saved from the inferno; one of them is the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus Christ on the day he was crucified.

There’s more hope emerging. French billionaires have pledged as much as $300 million to restore, repair and revive the iconic symbol of the Catholic Church.

That the fire would erupt during Holy Week only adds to the heartbreak as Christians worldwide prepare to celebrate the joyous Easter holiday. Thus, the Notre Dame cathedral usually stands as an iconic symbol of the joy that Christians feel as they celebrate Jesus’s resurrection. This year, though, the cathedral — nearly destroyed by a fire believed to have started because of work being done on the 850-year-old structure — stands as a reminder of hope in another fashion.

It stands as a testament to the will of people to rebuild a cherished symbol.

I feel the need, too, to salute the heroic effort of the firefighters who faced down the flames, controlled the fire and somehow managed to prevent a horrific catastrophe from becoming even more heartbreaking.

French President Emmanuel Macron vows to “rebuild” the Cathedral of Notre Dame. It would be foolhardy to bet against it.

national news

‘Trump 2020’? Where is VP Pence’s presence?

SLIDELL, La. — Just over yonder at the recreational vehicle park where my wife and I are parked for a few nights is an RV with a tall flagpole. It flies Old Glory and a Donald Trump campaign flag.

The Trump flag says: “Trump 2020 . . . Keep America Great.”

I am struck by something missing from the banner: the name of Vice President Mike Pence. I’ll stipulate that I’ve seen political banners containing both men’s names. So perhaps this Trump 2020 banner is no big deal.

Then again . . .

I’m scratching my head. I won’t ask the owner of the RV about it; he likely doesn’t know a thing about any possible back story. I do remember a moment about a year ago when Trump asked Pence if he would run with him for re-election. Pence said “yes.” Trump applauded in front of the boisterous crowd. All seemed happy in Trump World.

But . . . is it?

I’ve noted that the president and the vice president aren’t eating lunch these days privately, per their custom. Trump jettisoned the personal lunches with the No. 2 man in the government’s executive branch. Atlantic magazine reports that Trump reportedly has chided Pence privately about the VP’s endorsement of Sen. Ted Cruz prior to the2016 Indiana Republican presidential primary. Trump won that primary and he reportedly has lorded that over the VP.

I must wonder whether the president is so indebted to Pence that he would keep him on the GOP presidential ticket in 2020. I also am wondering if Pence’s devotion to the president registers with Trump. Does he care that the VPOTUS has stood foursquare with him?

Trump demands loyalty among subordinates. He looks for all the world to me like someone who feels no need to reciprocate.

Thus, I am wondering whether the “Trump 2020” flag portends a big announcement.

International news

Mr. POTUS, just express support and then shut up

Donald J. “Idiot in Chief” Trump just couldn’t leave it alone.

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris caught fire. It burned so badly, the cathedral’s iconic steeple collapsed. French firefighters have managed to control the blaze. They saved the towers. A CBS News picture shows that the altar and the crucifix in the sanctuary are still standing. A miracle? Yes!

The president of the United States posted a Twitter message lamenting the tragedy — and then offered some idiotic advice. Why not deploy firefighting aircraft to dump tons of water on the 850-year-old building? he said.

Not a good idea, Mr. President. Such water being dumped could cave in the roof, completing the destruction the heroic firefighters have managed to avoid.

My advice to you is this, Mr. President: Shut the fu** up and don’t offer advice on matters about which you know nothing!

national news

Hope battles fear as AG Barr preps to release report

A big day is on tap this week.

Thursday is when Attorney General William Barr is going to release what many of us hope is a healthy portion of what special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded about Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States.

It won’t be the full report. We aren’t going to see all of it. Barr is going to keep some of it secret.

I am facing a battle between my hope and my fear over what the AG is going to release.

Barr already has written that four-page summary of what Mueller concluded. The AG says Mueller found no “collusion” between Trump’s campaign and Russians who hacked into our electoral system; he also says Mueller reached no conclusion about obstruction of justice, but said Mueller didn’t have enough to file a criminal complaint.

Do you believe the AG’s version of what Mueller concluded?

I don’t either. Not entirely. That’s why I want to see the whole thing. It’s also why I believe we should demand to see all of it.

My hope would be that the AG would release as much of it as humanly possible, keeping national security secrets from public view. I get the reason to withhold that information.

Still, I believe it is imperative that the public — which paid for this 22-month-long investigation — would see the evidence that Mueller collected during that probe, that we would be allowed to determine for ourselves whether Mueller made the right call.

My fear presents another set of concerns. It revolves around how much Barr is going to redact, keep from our eyes. It also concerns me that Congress, particularly Democrats who control the House, are going to be so enraged that they will subpoena witnesses left and right to committee hearing rooms. My fear also nags me with the feeling that Barr is consciously withholding more than he should because he wants to shield the president from prying eyes, such as yours and mine.

Yep. Thursday is going to be a big day. I’m on pins and needles.

national news

Trump throws lunches with Pence aside

This shouldn’t be a big story, but it kind of is a big one.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence aren’t eating lunch together these days. The president has decided to ditch his “intimate” lunches with the vice president. He is sending aides to break bread with the VP.

What does this portend? It’s anyone’s guess, given the mercurial, unpredictable, whim-whipped decision-making that drives the president.

I am left to wonder: Is the president so angry with the VP that he’s going to toss him over when he runs for re-election in 2020?

The report of Trump and Pence no longer breaking bread comes from The Atlantic, which reports that Trump was miffed that Pence endorsed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz prior to the Indiana Republican presidential primary in 2016. The Atlantic also reports that Trump chided Pence in 2017 about the endorsement Trump received from former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight. “I won the primary and now look where you are, Mike,” Trump supposedly told the VP.

Well, so much for the fealty that Pence has exhibited while standing by his man, the president.

I don’t know yet where this will go. Nor do I know whether it portends yet another big political shakeup within the Trump administration. Trump has demonstrated quite a propensity for shaking things up. He has tossed aside the Homeland Security chain of command. Trump has yet to name permanent replacements at several key Cabinet and senior advisory posts.

Now it’s the vice president — the next in line for the Big Chair — who might be tossed aside for someone else?

If we play that scenario out, I am baffled as to how Donald Trump could have found a more loyal foot soldier than Mike Pence. He demands loyalty. In Pence, he has gotten what he has demanded . . . and then some!

These private POTUS-VPOTUS lunches have become a staple of many previous administrations. President Obama and Vice President Biden met regularly; so did President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Yes, others at the top of the chain of command have met regularly.

To my admittedly distant vantage point, I just haven’t picked up on the body language exhibited by many previous presidents and vice presidents. Let’s face it: Pence is the straightest arrow in the quiver; Trump is, well, let’s just say he has behaved badly for damn near his entire adult life.

I guess that is why news of the end of the Trump-Pence lunches is a big deal. It might become a huge deal.

International news, religious news

Iconic cathedral destroyed . . . oh, the tragedy!

Fire has swept through the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the iconic Paris church and an overarching symbol for the Catholic Church.

The bell towers reportedly are safe. The spire has collapsed. Reports seem conflicted. Is the cathedral a total loss?

I know what we all are thinking now as French firefighters battle this blaze: Is this the act of a terrorist? No such organization has claimed responsibility as I write this brief post. I pray none will surface. If it’s a bogus claim from some faker, I trust French intelligence officials will know.

I’ve not been to Paris. I have not seen this iconic structure. Those I know who have seen have come away enriched beyond measure just being in the presence of this holy site.

Thus, the world should mourn what is unfolding in Paris at this moment.

My heart is broken.

national news

Puppy Tales, Part 69: Yes, he could learn this task

NEW ORLEANS — I hereby am going to restate what you already know: Toby the Puppy is the smartest pooch I’ve ever seen.

However, he hasn’t learned every task there is to learn. Just today my wife and witnessed a pooch about Toby’s size doing something I’ve never seen. I do believe, though, that Toby can be taught to do what this little doggie was doing.

We were walking along the Mississippi River front when we noticed a young man playing a guitar and singing for onlookers. He was crooning a nice version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.” The young man was entertaining a gaggle of listeners across the street from the Jax Brewery. He finished the song and then his little four-legged companion began fetching money from the clapping audience members and bringing it to her daddy.

The young man gave his pooch a treat when she returned with the loot. He would put the money aside. Then he would dispatch the doggie to get more of it from those who were holding out the tips in their hands.

But get this. The fellow didn’t put all of is stash of cash away. The puppy would grab the money off the pile next to the street crooner and then deliver it to him in anticipation of getting another treat.

The young man told his little puppy to “Go out there and get the money from all those nice people . . . like that lady over there!” His puppy complied dutifully.

I am convinced beyond a doubt that Toby — who just turned 5 — could learn to do that. Our puppy is far from being too old to learn a new task.

entertainment news, local news, Sports news

Sod Poodles, ballpark add to city’s life and future

I have repurposed this picture from my social media network and I now intend to use it to illustrate a point I think needs making.

Amarillo’s Sod Poodles, the minor-league baseball team that has opened to big crowds at Hodgetown, appear ready to lead the city where my wife and I used to live toward a new and bright future.

We have no regrets about moving away, but I damn sure wish at times I could be there to cheer the “Soddies” on.

I am hearing about a smattering of gripes from those who think the fireworks at the games are too loud. Residents are bitching about the money spent to build the ballpark and to inject new life into the downtown district.

The gripes are to be expected, I suppose. No project, regardless of its value, is deemed as picture-perfect to everyone affected directly or indirectly by it.

Sure, I live some distance away. Thus, I won’t likely hear these gripes in person; I’ll merely read about them on social media. I intend to remind those along my own social media network that the gripes are misplaced and likely misinformed.

The ballpark cost a good bit of dough: $45 million. The city spent more to condemn the Coca-Cola distribution center and relocate it to a business park near Rick Husband-Amarillo International Airport. There have been tax incentives and abatements given to businesses that have sprung up along Polk Street.

I am baffled, though, at the complaints that the city’s effort to spruce up its downtown district is misdirected.

It is not!

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Every flourishing city in America has at least one thing in common — a vibrant downtown business-and-entertainment district.

I am unable to predict whether Amarillo, Texas, will join the ranks of prosperous American cities. It remains my strong sense, though, that the city is on the way toward that future.

The Amarillo Sod Poodles’ presence in that shiny new sports venue can lead the way.

national news

Dems ‘not smart enough’ to read POTUS taxes? Why, I never …

White House press flack Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this weekend that Democratic lawmakers aren’t “smart enough” to pore over Donald Trump’s tax returns.

If I were a Democratic lawmaker I would take serious offense at what she said.

Two reasons stand out:

(a) Democrats can hire tax accountants to interpret all the fine points for me. Surely someone with an MBA can determine whether the president has paid his fair share of taxes, or whether he has business interests in Russia that might be construed as putting him in a compromising position.

(b) Democratic members of Congress are as smart as their Republican friends and colleagues. They surely are as smart as the president and — dare I say it — his press secretary.

Well, all that aside, for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to toss a heaping helpful of Trump-like disrespect is insulting on its face.

But . . . the Trump base loves it when the president and his flack are “telling it like it is.”

national news

Just remember: they work for us!

I somehow feel the need to declare the obvious.

People who hold down elected or appointed public office are our servants. They work for us. Whether they are presidents of the United States, members of Congress, city council members, school board members . . . you name it. They are our employees.

I mention this because of what I am witnessing at a couple of levels of government.

Donald J. Trump demands personal loyalty from those he nominates to high office. If they don’t grant him what he wants, he cans ’em, demands that they quit or he tells one of his other underlings to do his dirty work for him.

This kind of would-be autocracy speaks ill of the notion that we live and function in a representative democracy. In other words, the folks who sit at the seat of power are there to do our bidding.

Let’s skip down a few rungs on the government ladder for a moment. Amarillo school trustees have dummied up over the resignation of a highly touted girls volleyball coach who quit a vaunted athletic program after a single season. Parents who pay the bills for the Amarillo Independent School District are demanding accountability and transparency from the elected school trustees. So far, as near as I can tell, they are getting neither from their “employees,” the men and women who work for them and serve their children.

Political leaders too often act as though they are the bosses. Wrong! They aren’t! We are! You and me, man!

I want to bring up for a moment something I watched about two decades ago in Congress. Republicans had just taken control of both congressional chambers. The new speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, wanted to enact a radical overhaul of the nation’s farm policy. He ran into stiff resistance from my congressman, Republican Larry Combest, who told the speaker — in so many words — to stuff his farm program where the sun didn’t shine.

Why the resistance? Combest told Gingrich that West Texas ranchers and farmers keep sending him back to the House to represent them. They didn’t like Gingrich’s idea of farm policy overhaul. Therefore, neither did their congressman.

Gingrich decided to punish Combest by denying him the House Agriculture Committee chairmanship.

Combest attained the chairmanship eventually, but only after Gingrich had been run out of office because of a failed effort to impeach and remove President Clinton from office and because of some personal indiscretions involving the speaker that came to light.

The moral of the story, though, remains the same. These folks are our employees. They work for us, not the other way around.

There are times when we the people need to flex our muscle and exercise the power inherent in our system of government . . . at all levels.