Monthly Archives: June 2020

local news

‘Big Beaners’: Yeah, it smacks of ethnic slur

Now that we’re up to our eyeballs in discussion about racial insensitivity, racism in general and police conduct involving racial minorities, I want to discuss briefly an issue that has boiled up in Amarillo, up yonder in the Texas Panhandle.

A local lawyer, Jesse Quackenbush, wants to open a restaurant there that he has called “Big Beaners.” Hmm. It’s a Mexican food joint.

Now, when I hear the term “Beaners,” I think immediately of the ethnic slur associated with it. It’s a derogatory reference to people of Hispanic heritage.

Not surprisingly, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the NAACP and others have objected to Quackenbush’s use of the term.

Quackenbush, also not surprisingly, is pushing back. He says he intends no ethnic or racial animus by naming his business “Big Beaners.”

I know Quackenbush. Our paths have crossed a time or two over the years. We aren’t pals. We have jousted on occasion.

I just want to weigh in with this brief thought: “Big Beaners” is potentially offensive to people of Hispanic descent and I would have thought that the learned counselor, given his longstanding association with Amarillo and its growing Hispanic population, would be more sensitive to how “Big Beaners” would sound to many folks in the Texas Panhandle.

I won’t do business with this eatery. I no longer live in Amarillo. Even if I did, I wouldn’t spend any money there. Given that we’re talking these days a good deal about matters of race and sensitivity to others, I believe the time is right for me to weigh in on an issue affecting a community that I think I know fairly well.

If I had any kind of pull in Amarillo, I would suggest that Quackenbush change the name of the joint. Well, what do ya know? I just did suggest it.

Uncategorized

They rallied in the name of ‘unity’

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On a day when Donald Trump preened and proclaimed that George Floyd would be “happy” with the huge job gains registered in the wake of the global pandemic, a group of Princeton, Texas, residents gathered at a park under a sweltering sun to honor Floyd’s memory.

Floyd, as the world knows, died more than a week ago when Minneapolis cops arrested him for a non-violent offense, put face down on the pavement and then snuffed the life out of him. The officer who killed him is white; Floyd was black.

Floyd’s death has triggered a national protest response that today found its way to this Collin County community.

They called a “unification rally,” given that there was no parade that required a police presence, although the Princeton Police Department dispatched about three patrol cars on the edges of the park just to stand by in case.

The rally drew a gathering of about 100 residents. Some of them were carrying signs: Black Lives Matter. Vote for Change, Silence is Violence, There Comes a Time when Silence is Betrayal; one sign asked, “What are you going to do to combat racism?”

The unification rally was organized by Princeton High School students. No one from City Hall was there. No one from the Princeton Independent School District (at least no one that I could recognize) came to the rally at J.M. Caldwell Sr. Park. It was an overwhelmingly white crowd of folks.

Off to the side members of the Princeton Veterans of Foreign Wars post handed out bottles of water. Jason Ash, a life member of the VFW post, said he was there “to support people’s consititutional right to protest. That’s why we served.”

I pointed out the voter registration table and Ash said, simply, “I hope everyone turns out to vote this November.” Indeed.

The climax of the unification rally occurred under the shelter when participants were asked — if they were able — to lie on the pavement, place their hands behind their backs and be silent for 8 minutes, 46 seconds … which is the amount of time that former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pressed his boot into the back of George Floyd’s neck. Floyd cried out for his mother, he pleaded with Chauvin to let him get up, saying “I can’t breathe.” 

George Floyd is the latest African-American to die a martyr for the cause of racial justice and equality. Tragically, he won’t be the last one. However, his death has spawned a movement that has found its way to communities of all sizes and backgrounds.

I am glad — and proud — that Princeton High School’s young people have declared to the world: Enough is enough.

military news

We are witnessing an unprecedented rebellion

Don’t accuse me of overstatement, because I believe in what I am about to pronounce.

It is that we are witnessing an unprecedented rebellion among former general-grade military officers who once worked at the highest levels of the chain of command. They are rebelling against the astonishing ignorance of the current commander in chief.

The first of them to speak out is the former defense secretary and retired Marine Corps general, James Mattis. He has accused Donald John Trump of being a threat to the U.S. Constitution. He said he is witnessing for the first time in his storied military career a president who is making no effort to unite the country, but is working diligently to divide it.

Then came the endorsement of Mattis’s comment from another retired Marine general, former White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Then we heard from retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff along with another Joint Chiefs chairman, retired Admiral Michael Mullen. They, too, are appalled at Trump.

Joining them was the former Admiral William McRaven, the special operations command boss who coordinated the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He blasted Trump over his clearing the streets of peaceful protesters so he could stage that hideous photo op in front of St. John Episcopal Church … when he held the Bible in front of the boarded-up house of worship that had been damaged by rioters.

Current Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley and current Defense Secretary Mark Esper have bolted from Trump’s decision to send active-duty military personnel into our cities to put down protesters rallying to decry police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s hideous death at the hands of rogue cops.

The custom has been for retired general-grade officers to keep their political views to themselves. Since custom has been tossed aside by Trump, then I left to presume the former officers feel unrestrained these days from speaking their minds.

All of this, these men say, is antithetical to the very notion of our Constitution, of the principles on which the founders created this nation. The president seeks to dispatch members of the world’s most destructive, most lethal military force to work against citizens who are guaranteed constitutionally the right to seek redress of government policy.

Yep, we have a dangerous man at the helm.

business news, economic news

These numbers are mind boggling … to be sure

I always have considered the study of economics to be a fairly precise endeavor. Experts look at hard data and make determinations based on what they see as hard evidence of trends.

I also am not an expert on these matters, so take this brief blog post with a grain or two of salt if that suits you.

Thus, when economists project a jobs report that looks toward a 20 percent unemployment rate nationally and the loss of about 9 million non-farm jobs in the past month, I tend to take those projections seriously. I mean, the pandemic has slammed the brakes on the national economy.

That didn’t happen today when the U.S. Labor Department released its latest monthly jobs report.

Labor’s bean counters said the nation added nearly 3 million jobs and the jobless rate dropped from 14 percent to 13 percent in the past month.

How in the name of data-driven study did they miss the mark so badly?

If this had been done during the administration of, say, Barack Obama, we could expect to hear accusations immediately coming from, oh, Donald Trump that the numbers were cooked up. That they were phony. That the Labor Department is being run by a cabal of partisan hacks intent on feathering the president’s political fortunes.

Donald Trump, though, is the immediate beneficiary of these stunning numbers … and this stunning misreading of the nation’s economic standing.

I won’t question the veracity of this jobs report, given my own stated belief that the Labor Department is run by professionals who know what they heck they are doing. I have defended the Labor Department when Donald Trump hurled baseless accusations about previous jobs reports.

At least they know what they’re doing, um, most of the time.

However, I look forward to a thorough explanation of just how the best and the brightest economic minds in the nation missed this call by a country mile.

national news

George Floyd would be glad to see jobs report?

Yep, Donald John Trump said today that the man killed by Minneapolis cops — whose death has spawned a national protest movement against police brutality — would be happy to see the jobs report that stunned economists and politicians.

He conflated a national tragedy with a stunning increase of 2 million jobs and a reduction in the jobless rate from 14 percent to 13 percent.

Trump said, “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country. This is a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.”

George Floyd is still dead. The Minneapolis cops who killed him are charged with murder in his death. The nation grieves for Floyd’s memory and is demanding fundamental change in the way many police departments handle cases involving African-Americans.

And the president of the United States seeks to suggest that Floyd would be happy at the good news suggesting an economic rebound?

Is this guy for real? Well, he is … I am disheartened to say. Donald Trump simply cannot — or will not — respond appropriately to anything.

Yes, the nation got some good news economic news today. I am cheered by the prospect of businesses filling many of the jobs that were emptied because of the coronavirus pandemic. Then we have Donald Trump making outrageous predictions about the economy storming back at record levels.

What’s more, he is seeking to turn a national tragedy into a political plus for him. Absolutely bizarre!

media news

Maine’s largest newspaper dumps all over POTUS visit

The Portland Press-Herald, the largest newspaper in Maine, offered a tart response to Donald J. Trump’s planned visit to the state.

“We’re sorry that you decided to come to Maine, but since you are here, could you do us a favor? Resign,” the paper said in an editorial published today.

There you have it, Mr. POTUS. The editors of the Press-Herald don’t want you to enter the state. They are fed up with your mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and with your fomenting of division and mistrust in the wake of George Floyd’s death on a Minneapolis street more than a week ago.

“You have never been a good president, but today your shortcomings are unleashing historic levels of suffering on the American people,” the editorial said.

I could not possibly agree more with what the Press-Herald has opined. It’s their call … and I am proud of them for making it.

You can read the full editorial here.

This must be said, too. Trump won’t heed the paper’s call. He will show up and will boast and bellow about all he has done to “make America great again.” He will continue to lie. Trump will ignore reality even as it gnaws at his hopes for re-election.

As the Press-Herald noted: America needs to heal again. Please resign now, and let us begin.

local news

Happy Trails, Part 182 : COVID shortens our leash

Our retirement journey has been reduced, narrowed, diminished a bit. We aren’t calling a halt to our recreational vehicle travel. We’ve just been placed on a dramatically shortened leash.

Damn you, coronavirus pandemic!

We had intended to spend a good bit of our summer months tooling around several states with our fifth wheel hooked up to our pickup.

Then the pandemic arrived in all its viciousness. It forced state parks to shut down. It has shuttered businesses that cater to folks like my wife and me.

I want to stipulate that we love the home we purchased in Collin County, Texas. We enjoy spending time working in the yard, arranging storage space to make it more usable for two retired folks.

We also enjoy greatly our RV and getting out of Dodge for a spell.

Except that this summer our travel will be restricted. Neither of us wants to push our luck visiting places that might become COVID-19 “hot spots” while we’re in the area.

Our plans now as summer approaches include a number of Texas state park visits. We’ll be spending some time shortly in Atlanta, Texas, at the state park in the northeast corner of Texas. Our new home puts us in close proximity to a number of state parks.

We had sought to get into a few of them closer to the house. We couldn’t get in; it turns out a lot of other Texans have the same idea and those parks were booked to the max.

We found some space at Atlanta State Park, so off we will go.

Retirement remains a whole lot of fun. We are hoping for an end to the health crisis that has limited our time with our precious granddaughter.

It also keeps us on a short leash. The open road awaits. It’s just not as lengthy as we prefer it to be.

national news

The ‘carnage,’ Mr. POTUS?

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Presidential inaugurals often produce  signature lines.

Franklin Roosevelt told us the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself”; John F. Kennedy implored the nation to “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”;  Gerald R. Ford — the nation’s only unelected president — told us “our long national nightmare is over.”

Donald John Trump’s signature line? “The American carnage stops right now.”

Well, dude, it hasn’t stopped. Yeah, he was referring to crime … but that hasn’t abated, either. The new “American carnage” came to us via the coronavirus pandemic. OK, he didn’t cause it. His dawdling, dithering and delay in acting initially to it has resulted in tens of thousands of more deaths than it otherwise might have produced had the president acted decisively at the front end of the pandemic.

But he didn’t.

Thus, the American carnage he vowed to stop only has worsened on his watch.

The pandemic continues to rampage across the land. It is producing greater rates of infection and death in many communities, all while the president continues to push state and local governments to speed up the reopening of the economy that has stalled because of the pandemic.

It ain’t working, Mr. President. I will just chalk this “American carnage will end” pledge to be another broken promise.

national news

So … what about that pandemic?

Hey, wait a second! Weren’t we worrying ourselves into a tizzy over that COVID-19 matter, the pandemic that is killing thousands of Americans each day?

It appears it took another tragedy to knock the pandemic off our front pages, off our news channels’ reporting of issues of the day, even off our own conscious thoughts. We’ve been caught up by the George Floyd tragedy in Minneapolis … as we should, given the monumental implications of the death of a black man at the hands of white cops who were brutalizing him.

I do want to turn my attention — and maybe even yours — back to the pandemic for just a brief moment.

I’ve lost count of the number of Americans who have died from the viral infection. The last figure I saw was 108,000-plus and climbing. It has slammed the brakes on the economy. The U.S. Labor Department is likely to tell us Friday that our jobless rate is now at around 20 percent. Meanwhile, we’re still getting sick at an alarming rate and we’re still dying.

So what has been Donald Trump’s focus? Get this: He is going to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte, N.C. Why? Because Gov. Roy Cooper won’t guarantee that the RNC will be able to fill the arena with screaming Trumpkins cheering the nomination of their guy for a second term as president. Oh, did I mention that Cooper is a Democrat? Trump is having none of what the governor is saying, so he’s now shopping around for a more, um, friendly governor who will allow the RNC to pack an arena and expose thousands of Republican delegates and their families to potential exposure to the coronavirus.

Smart, huh? No! It’s pretty damn dumb! It is profoundly stupid! It is going to put Americans in jeopardy!

That doesn’t matter to a president who doesn’t give a rat’s a** about them or their health or their well-being. He cares only about himself, which many of us predicted would be the result of electing this carnival barker/con man/fraud/pathological liar to the nation’s highest office.

So … the pandemic continues to ravage the nation that has seen its attention diverted to another tragedy.

I just felt compelled to remind everyone that we’ve got a plate full of crises that the man who took an oath to protect us is failing to tackle in any sort of decisive fashion.

Do you feel good now? Me, neither.

crime news

This tragedy seems … different

Americans have witnessed so many tragedies that we have become numb — or so it seems — to their effects.

Politicians get assassinated. Buildings are blown up. Madmen open fire in schools, churches and movie theaters. And, yes, police officers kill citizens in acts of brutality.

However, this latest tragic event — the death of George Floyd more than a week ago on a Minneapolis street — seems sadly different. This one well might stick in our national consciousness for far longer than anything else we had have witnessed.

Why is that?

I want to posit a couple of theories.

One is the physical evidence we all have seen of a cop holding Floyd to the ground, with his knee pressing against the man’s neck. We watch the cop do nothing to respond to Floyd’s pleas for help, his cries for his mother, his crying out that “I can’t breathe.” The cop, Derek Chauvin, hold him down — while the suspect is handcuffed. Floyd loses consciousness. Chauvin still doesn’t lift his knee off of Floyd’s neck.

How in the name of human decency does one explain this away? How will this former police officer tell the world why he held down a man who offered no resistance until he no longer has a pulse? You’ve seen the video, yes? He looks at the young bystander who took the video as if to say, “So what are you looking at?”

This event calls out loudly and clearly to the issue of how police treat African-American men and whether they treat them differently than they do, say, white men or white women.

The second notion that might produce the seminal moment in police-black community relations has been the reaction of police agencies around the country. We are hearing other law enforcement officials condemning the actions of Derek Chauvin. They are standing — and kneeling — with peaceful protesters in cities from coast to coast to coast in solidarity with the concerns they are raising.

So, the dialogue has commenced. Americans are demanding justice be delivered to Chauvin and the three police colleagues who watched him kill George Floyd. They also are demanding that police cease demonizing American citizens simply because of their skin color.

This outrage should last for as long as it takes for there to be tangible evidence that we are slaying this deadly beast.