Monthly Archives: August 2019

crime news, national news

Here’s what POTUS could have added about massacres

Donald Trump today laid the blame on the mass shootings at the feet of several institutions and cultural trends.

He blamed the Internet for promoting violence, the media for their “fake news” reporting, a lack of mental health awareness and care, the preponderance of violence-ridden video games.

I’ll accept that most of those causes as valid areas of concern; the media, though, have been singled out only because of the president’s hatred and mistrust of them.

What he didn’t do was take any personal responsibility for the coarseness of the political dialogue. Therefore, if I were writing his remarks, I would have added something like this:

Finally, and most significantly, I want to call attention to the coarse rhetoric that has infected our political discourse. I also want to express my personal regret for contributing to it.

Yes, I declared my presidential candidacy in 2015 with a direct assault on Latin American immigrants who were — and still are — crossing our border illegally. However, I went too far in ascribing criminal intent to too many of them. For that I apologize.

Furthermore, from this day forward I am going to dial back my own hard-bitten rhetoric. I will pledge to work openly toward developing a more civil political climate. 

My regret runs deep and I am sorry for whatever I have done to inflame the deeply held passions to which I have referred already in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton massacres.

Why didn’t he say that? It’s simple. Donald Trump does not possess the gene that allows him to express regret for any mistake he commits. So he shrouds institutions and people all around him with blame and responsibility for matters that he –as the president of the United States — has the power to control all by himself.

He once said that “I, alone” can fix what ails the country. He ought to say that “I, alone” will demand an end to the hate-filled rhetoric that has poisoned our political atmosphere.

media news

Stop shifting the blame, Mr. POTUS

For crying out loud, Mr. President. You deliver a decent talk this morning about the need to condemn “white supremacy” and to battle the scourge of hate across the land.

Then you put something like this out there. The Twitter message blames the media, “fake news,” for contributing “greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years.”

C’mon! Knock it the hell off, Mr. President!

The media have reported your words, your fiery rhetoric, your declarations that “Mexicans bring crime” to the United States, your insistence on banning entry into the country from residents of certain Muslim countries, your declaration that Africa and parts of Latin America comprise “sh**hole” countries.

Are you saying the media should ignore these things? That the media shouldn’t do its job and report on what flies out of your mouth, or circulates through the Twitterverse?

Mr. President, you do not appreciate a single thing about what makes America great. One symbol of our nation’s greatness, sir, is the existence of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees a free press should be free of government interference or coercion or, dare I say it … bullying from the president of the United States.

crime news, national news

2nd Amendment serves as barrier to ‘slippery slope’

Now that we’re talking once again openly and relatively urgently — once again! — about gun control legislation, I want to offer an argument that I believe doesn’t get as much attention as it should.

Nearly 30 people are dead after massacres in El Paso and Dayton. Donald Trump has called for “urgent action” to stem gun violence. The nation once again is horrified at the actions of two individuals motivated apparently by vastly different reasons, but whose actions have brought untold misery and heartache to us all.

I believe in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I have read it zillions of times. Although I believe it is worded awkwardly and can be interpreted in any number of ways, it does say that the right to bear arms is guaranteed to all U.S. citizens.

Does that constitutional guarantee act as a barrier against what some might call a “slippery slope” argument opposing efforts to “register” firearms owners? I believe it does.

I’ve heard a bit of social media chatter about how gun registration necessarily leads to “confiscation” of firearms. I want to shoot that argument down — pun very much intended.

The Second Amendment’s language, in my view, prohibits confiscation. Thus, to allow the government to confiscate firearms would require repealing or amending the Second Amendment. Does anyone with half a brain believe that is going to happen, even in the wake of this deadly back-to-back outburst over the weekend? Of course they do not.

Therefore, I maintain my belief that there are legislative remedies available to help stem this epidemic of gun violence. Universal background checks is a start. There might be a registration component to consider as well.

As for the “slippery slope,” the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment acts as an impenetrable barrier to prevent us from sliding too far down that slope. It doesn’t preclude wise men and women in government from doing what they can to legislate a cure for the scourge that is killing too many innocent people.

local news, Sports news

Sod Poodles will have to carry on without me

I enjoy offering tidbits of commentary on Amarillo’s AA minor-league baseball team, the Sod Poodles. However, it is time for an acknowledgement.

It is that given my current place of residence, I’ll be unable to attend any Sod Poodles games this year at Hodgetown, the team’s brand new home venue in the middle of downtown Amarillo.

My wife and I live in Collin County. The Sod Poodles do come to Frisco a few times this season to play the Roughriders. Some friends have invited us to attend a Sod Poodles-Roughriders game later this month. We’ll attend it. We’ll have a good time. I’ll cheer enthusiastically for the Sod Poodles.

I had high hopes at the beginning of this maiden season that I could attend a game at Hodgetown. I’ve seen the stadium up close. I stood outside the right field fence on a recent visit to Amarillo, but didn’t seek entry into the ballpark.

My friends who do attend the games tell me the venue is first class, top drawer, shiny and clean. The beer is cold. The hot dogs are fresh. Hey, these things matter when you’re sitting in the summer sun at the ballpark watching athletes play hardball.

There’s always next year. I will commit to returning to Amarillo when the Sod Poodles are there for an extended home stand. About the best I can do is visit the Sod Poodles souvenir shop in the near future, where I am likely to buy a ballcap or some such memento.

Meanwhile, if it’s OK for me to cheer from afar, I’ll do so with pleasure.

crime news

‘American carnage’ continues unabated

Mr. President, I feel the overwhelming need to remind you of the signature line of your inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017.

It was the moment you declared that the “American carnage stops right here. Right now.”

Uh, Mr. President, it hasn’t stopped.

But you know that already. The slaughtering of 20 people in El Paso and 10 in Dayton within hours of each other speaks to the ongoing bloodletting that is occurring throughout our country.

The motive behind the El Paso massacre is coming into focus. The shooter hates immigrants, particularly Latin American immigrants. He wanted to “kill as many Mexicans as possible,” he told the cops who arrested him. The reason for the Dayton bloodbath remains a bit cloudy. I, for one, haven’t yet heard about a motive for the moron opening fire there. About all I know is that he was dressed in body armor and the police gunned him down within seconds of his firing the first rounds at his victims.

I want to return to that pledge you made.

I heard you make the statement about stopping the “American carnage,” but I don’t recall what you said at the time in front of that “record-setting” at the inaugural about how you intended to tackle this crisis. If only you had said anything else that resonated with Americans. I recall a dark, foreboding speech about the myriad crises you said you inherited from your predecessor.

It seems to me, Mr. President, that your rhetoric since taking office has had quite the opposite effect. You haven’t “ended” the carnage, but have stoked anger that only has worsened it.

Let me be clear about one point, Mr. President: I am not going to hold you personally responsible for what that moron did in El Paso. It’s been said during the day that you are no more responsible than Sen. Bernie Sanders was responsible for the pro-Bernie idiot who opened fire on Republican members of Congress practicing for that charity baseball game.

However, I am among many Americans who is distressed beyond measure at the tone of your rhetoric and what impact it might have on those who are inclined to act in the manner we witnessed in El Paso.

You promised to stop “the American carnage.” It’s not too late to make good on that pledge. What are you going to do about it?

Mr. President? Are you listening?

International news

Immigrants become newest No. 1 ‘villain’

I have just read the screed that someone — allegedly the young man who killed all those folks in El Paso — posted on some anti-immigrant websites.

Whoever wrote it speaks angrily about immigrants. Not “illegal immigrants.” The author talks about all immigrants. That would be anyone who wants to come into this country. Not just those who sneak in under the radar, who break the law because they are fleeing someone or something in their home country.

I believe it likely will be determined that the screed comes from the individual who slaughtered those 20 victims in the El Paso Wal-Mart complex. What, then, do we make of this individual’s motivation? From where does it come?

I’ll pose this question: Does it come from a president of the United States who has referred to nations in Africa and in Latin America as “sh**hole countries”? It was that statement, made reportedly in a private staff meeting at the White House, that revealed Donald Trump’s antipathy to people of certain ethnic and racial origins.

He wasn’t referring to “illegal immigrants” when he blurted out that statement. He was referring to anyone from nations he likened to being covered in fecal matter.

Have we just witnessed the consequence of this heartless rhetoric?

national news

George P. Bush lays it out plainly: defeat ‘white terrorism’

You might remember when the late President George H.W. Bush once spoke affectionately of his grandchildren, whose parents are Jeb and Columba Bush … and how he referred to them as “my little brown ones.”

Their mother is from Mexico and the president took some undeserved heat for his comments.

One of the “little brown ones” has grown into a Texas elected official, serving as land commissioner. George P. Bush, furthermore, has joined the chorus of those of us who decry what he calls “white terrorism” in the wake of the El Paso massacre that resulted in the deaths of 20 victims.

I want to applaud  George P. for his stance, as he is one of the few Republican politicians at this moment willing to stand up and say what now appears more evident than ever — that the shooter, also a Texan, who opened fire in the El Paso Wal-Mart store was stirred by virulent hatred of dark-skinned immigrants from Latin America.

Bush took to Twitter to make his feelings known. They lend an important voice to this ever-growing national debate.

“I believe fighting terrorism remains a national priority. And that should include standing firm against white terrorism,” Bush said.

He went on: “There have now been multiple attacks from self-declared white terrorist here in the U.S. in the past several months. This is a real and present threat that we must all denounce and defeat.”

Bingo, Mr. Land Commissioner.

Now, let’s all wait to hear from the nation’s top politician, the man at the top of the political food chain, the commander in chief, the head of state … and the apparent source of much of the hatred that has spilled out since he became president of the United States.

crime news

More guns won’t prevent carnage … period!

I am quite certain we’re going to join this debate fully in due course, but I want to inject on this blog a thought I heard this morning in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton massacres that occurred in the past 24 hours.

Thirty people are dead, many more are injured in the wake of two senseless attacks by morons intent on doing harm.

The debate to which I refer? It will involve whether putting more guns in people’s hands will make us a safer society. This morning I heard from a Texan, former San Antonio mayor and former housing secretary (and current candidate for president of the United States) Julian Castro, who made a most cogent observation.

He told “This Week” host Jon Karl that the El Paso slaughter occurred in Texas. It allegedly was carried out by a Texan, who traveled from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to El Paso to terrorize innocent victims.

Castro noted that Texas is known worldwide as a place where its residents carry lots of guns; he noted we have concealed carry laws, open carry laws and campus carry laws in Texas. Yet the individual who opened fire in the Wal-Mart mall likely knew of the consequence of facing return fire from firearm-packing bystanders … but it didn’t deter him in the least!

He committed his hideous, heinous and horrific act anyway.

Do more guns make us safer? Well, let’s have that debate. I am willing to argue they do not!

crime news

What is happening to us?

What in the name of all that is evil and sinister is going on?

I, along with the rest of the nation, went to bed last night reeling from the news out of El Paso and that a young man who lives just down the road from us in Collin County has been arrested in connection with the slaughter of 20 people in a Wal-Mart shopping complex.

Then I woke up today to hear about another mass shooting, in Dayton, Ohio, where someone shot nine people to death before the police killed him in a fire fight.

Good ever-lovin’ Lord! What is happening to this country?

The president called the El Paso shooting an “act of cowardice.” I am sure he’ll say something similar in response to the Dayton massacre.

The statements are welcome. Except that presidents have been issuing them too often over many years. They aren’t enough. Presidential proclamations do nothing to assuage the genuine fear that is planted in the hearts of Americans.

So help me, I feel as though I am approaching a mindset of holing up in my house and never venturing out … ever again! Dammit! I would hate living like that!

crime news, national news, State news

Gun violence: tragedies built on mountain of complexity

Another massacre has stabbed the nation in its heart. The wound is deep.

El Paso, Texas, has fallen victim to the insanity of gun violence. Twenty people are dead; 26 are injured. A 21-year-old Allen, Texas, resident is under arrest and will face charges of capital murder.

What motivated the shooter to do what he did?

Police have found a screed written by someone. It is fervently anti-immigrant. Its contents border on a form of white supremacy. Police are saying that if it’s proven the young man in custody wrote the screed he will be charged with a hate crime.

We now are entering the world of “domestic terrorism,” which is what this tragedy is sounding like.

Don’t you remember when these crimes provoked debate about accessing guns, about the proliferation of firearms, about how Congress and the president fail continually to enact laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them?

Those issues remain on the table. Now they are joined by the issue of hate, of angry political rhetoric that some suggest spurs these hateful actions. They join the threat of international terrorism, which occasionally becomes the focus of these crimes when they’re committed by those angered by foreign policy decisions related to our nation’s ongoing war against terrorists.

It is boggling my mind. However, the El Paso massacre is looking more and more like an act of domestic terror.

My hope at this very moment is that the Texas Rangers, the FBI, El Paso County and municipal police investigators can get answers for us in short order so we can sort out the motive.

If it is as many of us suspect, then we need to launch a full-out, frontal attack on those who would terrorize fellow Americans in such a heinous manner.