Monthly Archives: October 2019

national news

Trump provides one of life’s mysteries

Life is full of mysteries. Things happen that we cannot explain, no matter how hard we try to comprehend them.

One of the current mysteries of life involves the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Specifically, it is a mind-boggling mystery to me how this guy maintains his vise-grip of support among Americans who I am certain do not subscribe to The Donald’s personal code of living.

Many millions of Americans who retain their adulation of this fellow are straitlaced (and I mean that in the good way), God-fearing folks who are faithful to their spouses, who follow the Golden Rule, who do not cheat their way through business deals.

Yet the president of the United States has admitted to philandering; he says he never has sought forgiveness; he acknowledges that he seeks to operate in a climate of fear.

Trump got elected president of the United States after waging one of the more vicious campaigns in U.S. history. His re-election effort is likely to make his election campaign look like a Scout picnic in comparison.

And yet … he holds onto his core of support. I just looked at the RealClearPolitics poll average and Trump maintains a 43 percent approval rating among Americans. Remember that the RCP average includes all major surveys, those that lean right and those that lean left. RCP averages ’em up and we see that Trump’s support doesn’t waver much — even in the wake of credible evidence that he has committed impeachable offenses.

This might offer yours truly some grist for questioning Trump’s supporters this week. I am going to attend the Donald Trump MAGA rally at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Thursday. I’ll get there early. I’ll have my notebook and pen in hand. I just might pose the question in search of one of life’s mysteries.

My challenge will be to ask these folks in a manner that doesn’t rile them up. I know it’s a challenge. I shall do my best to get the answer that has eluded me all this time.

I always have wanted political leaders to exhibit some level of goodness. They need not be goodie-two-shoes, but merely individuals who at minimum treat others the way they want others to treat them. Does the president adhere to that code? Hardly.

I hope to get a better understanding of this mysterious aspect of POTUS’s core of support. This inquiring mind needs to know.

national news

Democrats need to heed the words of ex-Sen. Reid

Harry Reid no longer leads the U.S. Senate Democratic caucus. However, he remains a voice of wisdom earned through all his years of waging partisan battles against those on the other side of the aisle.

His latest nugget comes in the form of warning to Democrats who are facing off against Donald J. Trump: Do not take the Republican president lightly, says Reid, who adds that while Trump might not be an intellectual heavyweight, he is still a “smart man.”

Yes, Trump is in trouble politically. He is facing a near certain impeachment by the House of Representatives over allegations of abuse of power and his seeking foreign government help in bringing down Joe Biden, a potential 2020 campaign opponent.

Reid, though, believes Trump will be a difficult foe to beat in 2020 because he plays rough and tough and is willing to say anything about anyone as long as it plays well to his political base. He fires ’em up.

As Reid told David Axelrod on CNN: “I used to think that Donald Trump was not too smart. I certainly don’t believe that anymore. No matter what the subject, any argument he involves himself in, it’s on his terms.“

So it should go as the 2020 presidential campaign ramps up. Democrats will have their hands full trying to defeat this individual.

I concur with Sen. Reid. Trump isn’t an intellectual titan, despite his empty and idiotic boasts about being a “stable genius.” He is cunning, cagey … and ruthless in the extreme. 

Donald Trump also needs to be kicked out of the Oval Office.

national news

Trump misses irony of his anti-Biden tirade

I was stunned to hear Donald John Trump deliver a blistering and crass rebuke of Joseph Biden Jr., in which he said the only way he succeeded at being vice president was that he figure out “how to kiss Barack Obama’s a**.”

I want to offer a few examples.

My goodness, the irony of that statement is astonishing in the extreme. You see, the only thing that the president of the United States seems to demand from those who answer to him is for the underlings to kiss his own a**.

Trump demands loyalty from, say, the director of the FBI. When James Comey doesn’t deliver it, he gets fired. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wouldn’t take part in the Russia investigation because he recognized the obvious conflict of interest, given that he worked on Trump’s campaign and couldn’t investigate himself; he recused himself and then got fired by Trump.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson got canned because he challenged the president’s authority to enact certain policies; so did former national security advisor H.R. McMaster.

The list is seemingly endless.

Donald Trump wants his sycophants to kiss his backside. He demands fealty, blind loyalty. He doesn’t appear to tolerate dissent.

So, for the president to make such a suggestion about former Vice President Joe Biden is laughable on its face.

Except that it’s not funny.

national news, political news

This impeachment thing appears to be growing more tentacles

As I seek to follow the ongoing impeachment crisis threatening the presidency of Donald Trump, I am getting a sense that the story is getting bigger than many Americans would prefer.

Just three weeks ago we learned about a phone call that Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodormyr Zellenskiy in which he sought a favor from Ukraine in exchange for releasing money to help Ukrainians fight Russian aggressors.

The phone call prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch an impeachment inquiry. The thought as I understood at the time was that the House would move rapidly toward an impeachment vote by Thanksgiving. It would be a narrowly focused matter: whether the president violated his oath by seeking foreign government help in his re-election and seeking foreign help in digging up dirt on Joe Biden, a potential foe in the 2020 presidential election.

Now it seems as if this story is getting many more tentacles.

Trump appeared to suggest that the vice president, Mike Pence, had conversations with Ukrainians as well; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at first denied knowledge of the Trump-Zellenskiy phone conversation, then acknowledged he was “on the call”; questions have now arisen about Turkey and whether the president’s decision to abandon our allies in Kurdistan in the fight against ISIS is somehow related to a Trump Towers deal in Istanbul.

My head is spinning, man.

Does all of this come together quickly? Can there be an impeachment vote by Thanksgiving? Can the Senate commence a trial and make a decision by, say, spring 2020? Is all of this getting so muddy that we won’t have a resolution until after the 2020 presidential election?

As if it needed to get more complicated. The juxtaposition of a re-election fight and an impeachment muddies matters beyond anything the nation has experienced. President Clinton was a lame-duck second-term president when the House impeached him in 1998; President Nixon was in the same boat when the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment in 1974. Neither man faced re-election.

This whole scenario is vastly different. Moreover, it keeps growing in its complexity as more Cabinet officials get sucked into the debate over what they knew and when they knew it.

I need something to settle my nerves.

I also want this saga to end — either through impeachment and Senate conviction, or at the ballot box — with Donald Trump vacating the Oval Office for a final time.

Sports news

Runner clears marathon hurdle … but wait!

When I first saw the headline about a runner becoming the first human being in history to run a marathon in fewer than two hours, I was delighted, thrilled, amazed.

Oh, but then I saw some of the details of it.

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya didn’t do it in a race. He didn’t run 26.2 miles against other runners. Oh, no. It was a controlled setting, complete with what I understand were “pacemakers,” who ran with him to keep him running on the record-setting pace.

Kipchoge compared his feat with Roger Bannister running the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954. Ha! There can be no comparison. Bannister did it in competition. He ran the mile in record fashion, then all but collapsed in the arms of the people waiting for him at the finish line; these days, runners finish such a race in well less than four minutes and look as though they’re ready to go another mile.

Kipchoge’s “record” won’t be entered into the books. It wasn’t sanctioned by the sport’s governing body for reasons I have sought to explain.

Hey, I don’t mean to disparage what this guy did. I cannot even think about running for more than 26 miles, let alone doing so in the fashion that Eliud Kipchoge accomplished the feat.

It’s just that it was a set-up in a fashion intended to produce a record-setting run.

It kind of reminds me of the time Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in that 1973 “tennis match,” which at the time was hailed as the first time a woman defeated a man on a tennis court. Good grief!

King was at the top of her game. Riggs was a washed up old man. It wasn’t a fair fight.

So it is with this “record” run. If someone does it while competing against other runners, then I’ll get excited.

local news

It pays — bigly! — to be an elected official in this county

I stumbled upon an item in the Dallas Morning News online edition that, to be honest, made my jaw drop damn near into my lap.

Dave Lieber writes a feature for the DMN called “The Watchdog” and he reports that the Rockwall County Commissioners Court voted themselves a 23 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. Moreover, the county judge — who presides over the entire Commissioners Court — received a 24 percent increase.

That, my friends, is one hell of a nice increase in pay.

Did the commissioners deserve it? Hah! I’d be willing to wager they didn’t deserve that kind of pay raise. But they granted themselves the huge increase anyhow.

What in the name of fiscal responsibility gives in Rockwall County?

The raises were steep across the board as they relate to other elected officials. All of them got gigantic raises. I am left to wonder: Did the sheriff’s deputy, or the county road maintenance employee, or the custodian get that kind of pay raise? Ohhhh, probably not!

Here’s some more news: Elected officials in neighboring counties received raises totaling a fraction of the amount of what was handed out in Rockwall County.

Oh, by the way, there is one elected official who emerges as a hero, according to The Watchdog. Commissioner Cliff Sevier voted against the pay increase.

If only there were more of them serving the people of Rockwall County.

Were the officials in Rockwall County underpaid? Did commissioners seek only to bring their salaries more competitive? Leiber writes: I hate to bring this up, but according to a salary survey by the Texas Association of Counties, when you compare Rockwall to counties of a similar size, your county was already in the top tier of salaries.

Well, at least Rockwall County residents who likely didn’t get raises that come close to what commissioners granted themselves, have an option they can pursue. They can vote these commissioners out of office.

national news

The full Donald was on display … waiting to see if appears here

Donald Trump was in full crass/disgraceful/boorish mode while standing among the faithful in Minneapolis, Minn.

He ventured to the Twin Cities ostensibly to target an audience he thinks might help him win re-election in November 2020. He lost Minnesota to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election … but not by very much. Trump believes he can parlay that close finish to victory next time.

How would he accomplish such a feat? One way, I suppose, is for him to go directly after the individual he believes poses the most direct threat to his re-election. That would be former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Trump crassness was on full display, particularly when he said Biden’s only claim to being an effective VP was that he learned how to “kiss (Barack) Obama’s a**.”

Ohhh, the crowd loved it! They screamed, they hollered, they cheered themselves hoarse. The Donald loved the reaction.

I am one who is utterly astounded that the president of the United States would say such a thing about any American citizen, let alone a former vice president of the United States and a man who likely has more friends on the Republican side of the aisle than Donald Trump.

Trump, though, behaves in a boorish fashion that I believe far exceeds the behavior we have ever witnessed in a head of state/commander in chief.

They reported that the arena in Minneapolis was full. I expect the American Airlines Center in Dallas, where Trump will stage another political rally next week, also will be full. I mean, he’s coming straight into the heart of Trump Country — even though Hillary actually collected more votes than Trump in Dallas County.

Still, Dallas is surrounded by Trump-friendly communities and the president will be able to display to a highly receptive audience how low he can go.

I’ll be in the crowd listening to this individual’s idiocy.

My fervent hope — at this moment — is that I don’t puke.

national news

Now the acting homeland security boss hits the road

Surely I am not the only American who has this nagging sense that the Donald Trump administration is continuing to unravel, that it is a ship without a rudder, that the “fine-tuned machine” needs a serious overhaul.

Perhaps it should come at the very top of the chain of command.

The acting homeland security secretary, Kevin McAleenan, is calling it quits. Think of this for a moment: At the time when the president wants to crack down on illegal border crossings, trying to secure the “homeland” against evil doers intent on harming us, the guy charged with running the department is bailing.

Sure, the president said some nice things about McAleenan, who inherited the “acting” gig upon the (forced) resignation of Kirsteijn Nielsen. Then again, he often does even when he doesn’t mean it. McAleenan reportedly had been clashing with other senior Trump administration officials, perhaps even with the president himself, over policy matters.

So now the latest acting Cabinet secretary is hitting the road.

There are damn near too many acting secretaries and senior agency heads to count. We do have an acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who’s basically taken a powder while the president struggles against the rising tide of evidence that is likely to lead to his impeachment.

But what the heck. Trump has said he likes having all these acting secretaries and senior agency bosses. It gives him “flexibility” in enacting policy pronouncements that pour forth from his Twitter account.

Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

So now the individual charged with protecting our “homeland” is gone. Who’s next, and when will that fine-tuned machine start functioning as one?

I don’t know the answer to the first part of the question. The second part? The executive branch of government will right itself when we get a new president of the United States.

media news

Shepard Smith leaves Fox News … but how did it happen?

Let’s see if we can connect a few dots regarding Shepard Smith’s stunning departure as a lead anchor on the Fox News Channel.

  • Smith went on the air and bid farewell, thanking Fox for giving him the opportunity of a lifetime.
  • He has been critical of Donald Trump, while the network that employed him became a presidential favorite.
  • Smith’s departure apparently caught his colleagues by surprise. Business news anchor Neil Cavuto was stunned into speechlessness.

My thoughts: Was the anchor’s departure totally of his own volition? Was it totally as he presented it today on the air? I’m just asking here.

There seems to be a good bit more to this story than we’ve been told.

Whatever. Shepard Smith is a pro. He’s a first-class broadcast journalist. I am almost willing to bet real American money he ends up on another broadcast/cable network … soon!

local news

MAGA rally could round out life experience, just as Klan rallies did

I am not going draw any ideological parallels between Donald Trump’s political rallies to Ku Klux Klan rallies, however, it strikes me that I ought to explain why I am drawn to the notion of attending one of those Trump events.

We have one coming up next Thursday at the American Airlines Center. The president will be there to whip his followers up and get ’em energized as he ramps up his re-election effort in the face of probable impeachment by the House of Representatives.

I want to attend this rally because I am drawn by the pull of seeing of these spectacles up close, from a ringside seat.

I had similar pulls years ago. I attended two Ku Klux Klan rallies. The first one occurred in the early 1990s in Orange County, Texas. The second rally was in 2006 in Amarillo, Texas.

Why did I go? I was working for daily newspapers at the time. No one assigned me to either of these events. I just felt compelled to go because I needed to get a sense of what drove Klansmen to say the things they do about African-Americans and what drove their supporters to cheer the verbal sewage that spilled out of the Klansmen’s mouths.

I got an earful at both events. In their way, both KKK rallies helped round out my professional experience in a fashion that I cannot to this day describe.

Perhaps the Trump rally in Dallas next week will fill out another blank in my journalism upbringing, even though I no longer work full time for any publication. I write this blog for myself. It is full of my own bias, which I do not hide from anyone.

Still, I find the idea of attending a presidential re-election rally to be an irresistible urge, even if it has anything to do with a president named Donald John Trump.