Monthly Archives: August 2020

national news

For the first time: fear!

Jeff Malet/Newscom via ZUMA Press)

You know how the cliche goes … that there’s a first time for everything.

We are coming up on the 13th presidential election that I will have had the privilege to cast my vote. For the first time in my voting life, and this is no hyperbole, I am genuinely afraid what a potential electoral outcome might produce.

Yes, fear has set in. I am among those Democratic-leaning voters who is petrified at the prospect of Donald John Trump getting another four years in the White House, another four years to further the cause of authoritarian rule, another term in office to dismantle what we have come know as our representative democracy.

I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but this election is truly — categorically and without a shred of doubt — the most consequential election in my lifetime.

I have cast votes in 12 previous elections. The most of recent election, of course, gave us Donald Trump. I supported Hillary Clinton. I will declare my support for her forever and with pride in doing so. However, as loathsome as Trump was in 2016 and as much damage many of us foresaw then, damn few American quite expected the wreckage that this guy would bring to the revered and exalted office of the presidency.

It’s not that we weren’t forewarned. We were. Trump took office reportedly never expecting to win the election, which likely explains the utter and absolute lack of preparation for the awesome job of governing a great nation.

Former President Obama laid it out there Wednesday night. Trump has not risen to the challenge because he “can’t,” Obama said.

It is no overstatement that my hope for a Biden victory on Nov. 3 comes with the hope that the former vice president — with more than four decades of governing experience under his belt — can restore our national honor, our soul, the sense that we are a nation full of compassionate, empathetic citizens.

Absent that and if Trump snatches a second stunning victory from the jaws of defeat, well … I don’t know what will become of us. Or our beloved nation.

I never before been this frightened.

national news

Barack Obama delivers

Barack Hussein Obama delivered the goods and laid them directly at the feet of Donald John Trump.

Those goods contained a fairly detailed recital of precisely why — in my own view — Trump is unfit for the office he holds and why former President Obama’s “brother,” Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., deserves to be elected the next president of the United States.

The media are making quite a lot of the “unprecedented” nature of a former president taking a sitting president to task so directly and so harshly. Hmm. Well, my own sense is that Trump merely is reaping what he has sown.

Why? I consider equally unprecedented the level of direct criticism, denigration and disparagement that the current president has laid on his immediate predecessor. I feel the need to point out that President Obama had remained essentially silent in the face of those unfair and unwarranted attacks … until now!

Obama said Trump has failed to grow into the office. He has failed to grasp the gravity of the awesome responsibility he inherited when he walked into the Oval Office. He said Trump has failed to rein in his angry impulses, failed to cease labeling foes as the “enemy.”

Yes, the 44th president delivered the goods. As did Sen. Kamala Harris, the VP nominee who’s running with Biden against Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

What’s next? Joe Biden has a steep hill to climb tonight when he accepts his party’s presidential nomination. He will need to at worst to meet the level that Obama and Harris reached with their speeches.

Biden has a stirring and compelling personal story, full of heartache and tragedy and perseverance. We know the story. He needs now to tell us where he intends to lead the nation if he becomes elected as our 46th president.

I am all ears, Joe. Talk to me.

national news

No MAGA hats at Goodyear prompts Trump outrage? Good grief!

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Donald J. Trump has spun into a dizzying maelstrom of political madness.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has declared that employees cannot wear MAGA hats while they’re at work. Yep, MAGA stands for “Make America Great Again,” which was Trump’s signature campaign theme in 2016.

Trump’s response? It was to call for a boycott of Goodyear tires. He did so via Twitter, declaring that there are “better” tires to put on our vehicles than Goodyear.

Except for this little bit of context. Goodyear’s MAGA hat ban is in keeping with its corporate policy banning partisan wardrobe statements that go above and beyond those that call for justice and racial understanding.

So, that means Trump’s boycott call is yet another hysterical overreaction to a non-story, a non-event, a non-controversial private company policy statement — which echoes policies enacted throughout corporate America.

Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency in 2016 while proclaiming that he is a non-politician, that he is a self-made business mogul who “tells it like it is.” He has managed, though, to politicize damn near everything around him, such as the wildly errant Twitter rant against Goodyear.

Oh, and the self-made crap? That was yet another lie!

He is out of control and, dare I say so yet again, totally unfit for the job he wants to keep.

Get him outta there!

medical news, national news

Success slips away in COVID fight

(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

The signs all around us tell a grim tale of failure, not success, in the ongoing battle against the COVID-19 virus that continues to sweep across the world’s wealthiest, most advanced nation.

The U.S. death toll has surpassed 170,000; the infection toll is more than 5 million. More telling is that that infection rate is accelerating, meaning that more people are getting sick every day than they were, say, a month ago.

And yet, Donald Trump keeps telling us we’re succeeding. Really, Mr. President? How in the name of medical science can this fellow possibly claim a success rate when we’re getting sicker by the day and when the fatalities keep mounting.

Remember, too, this little factoid: The United States comprises roughly 4 percent of the world’s population, but we account for roughly 25 percent of the world’s infection from the coronavirus.

Four percent vs. 25 percent. Hmm. That comparison simply blows my mind.

Against all of that, we’re going to hear from Donald Trump’s re-election team that we’re doing great. The nation’s economy is adding jobs at a stupendous rate. They will look straight past the monumental job loss that occurred when the pandemic tightened its grip on our business community, costing us roughly 30 million jobs over a three-month span.

That job loss, I should add, eliminated all the jobs created during the decade-long economic expansion that began on the watch of President Barack H. Obama, who took office in January 2009 amid the then-worst economic recession since the Great Depression. The current economic collapse makes the 2008-09 Great Recession look timid and tepid by comparison.

I mention all of this because I will await word on how Donald Trump intends to defend his response to the global pandemic. To my way of thinking — and perhaps the thinking of most Americans — his initial non-response has produced the infection and death rates that are now savaging our nation.

So, yes, Donald Trump must take responsibility for the misery he caused by failing to respond quickly and decisively enough when the pandemic first presented itself.

How does Donald Trump defend his pitiful record against what we know has transpired?

political news

Not missing convention noise

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Given the nature of presidential nominating conventions and their evolution from actual conventions to televised infomercials, I am prepared to say that I do not necessarily miss all the trappings of the way the conventions used to be piped into my living room.

The Democrats have nominated Joe Biden as their 2020 presidential candidate; they’re about to select Kamala Harris as Biden’s running mate.

They’re doing all this remotely, per the conditions brought on the COVID pandemic.

We’re getting the speeches, the TV spots extolling the candidates, the testimonials. Just like before. The only thing missing is the thunderous applause in the convention hall and the sight of delegates cavorting on the floor of the place wearing the goofy hats and buttons.

I get the drift of what the Democratic Party is trying to tell us. Next week the Republican Party will do its thing. They’re both going to be “virtual” conventions. The one big difference will be that Donald Trump will make his acceptance speech in the White House, a publicly owned, federal building that is supposed to be exempt from partisan political activity. Aww, but what the heck. Trump doesn’t give a rip about risking federal employees to potential criminal liability by making them violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits them from participating in partisan activity.

But … the beat goes on. We’ll have two presidential tickets named after next week. We have broken from the normal way we usually do these things. It’s still legitimate.

Now comes the rest of it, which is the sprint to the finish.

May the better ticket win. Oh, and I hope with every fiber of my being that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cross the finish line first.

national news

Why the squabble over GOP support?

I hear that some Democrats are miffed because their virtual presidential nominating committee includes testimonials for Joe Biden from, get ready for it, Republicans.

My answer: Get used to it.

The presumed Democratic presidential nominee is known as a bipartisan kind of guy. He worked across the aisle during his 36 years as a U.S. senator from Delaware. As vice president, he did the same thing, working with Republican legislators on critical fiscal matters.

That the Democratic presidential nominee would welcome the endorsement of Republicans is no surprise. One of his best friends in the Senate was the late John McCain, the Republican Vietnam War hero. McCain was no fan of Donald Trump. The late senator’s wife, Cindy, is going to line up behind her friend Joe Biden’s candidacy.

So has former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former EPA administrator and New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Democrats who are grumbling about the infusion of Republicans standing up for the Democratic nominee need to get over themselves.

Their party is on the verge of nominating someone who knows the value of compromise and who uses that concept to further the cause of good government legislation.

The nation needs more of the bipartisan spirit that Joe Biden seeks to bring to the office of president of the United States.

national news

Trump unhinged

I am trying to fathom the reasons that millions of American voters are continuing to argue for the re-election of the man pictured here.

So help me I am at a total loss.

Donald Trump keeps threatening to do bodily harm to our democratic process if the November presidential election doesn’t turn out the way he wants.

He is indicating he might not accept the result of an election that favors Joseph R. Biden Jr. He already has said that a Biden victory would guarantee a “rigged” election. So he’ll do what? Demand a recount? Toss the ballots out? Start over?

Then he said he deserves a “do-over” because President Obama and Vice President Biden “spied” on his campaign during the 2016 election season. Spied? Oh, that was when the FBI and others reported to the Obama administration that Russians were interfering in the election, so the Obama folks wanted to take a closer look at it.

The FBI already has determined there was no “spying.” That hasn’t shut Trump’s pie hole.

The latest gem is that he might seek a third term if — and I am swallowing hard to say these next few words — he wins re-election.

Oh, but wait. The U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment says a president can be elected twice. That’s it. No more. Is he going to demand an amendment to the Constitution? Good luck with that one, Donald.

Watching The Donald flail and flounder this way simply brings to mind my astonishment in the support he continues to pull from the roughly 40 percent (give or take) of the American voting public. What on Earth, in the name of political sanity, do they see in this individual?

The third term suggestion might be some sort of Trumpian joke, although The Donald seems to possess no discernible sense of humor. The “spying” allegation is just one more smear that Trump insists on leveling at Barack Obama, given what I believe is his intense envy at the sophistication his immediate predecessor demonstrated during his two terms in office.

Whether to accept the election result if former VP Biden wins? In some sort of macabre way, many of us saw that one coming long ago … about the time he rode down that Trump Tower escalator to declare his candidacy for the only public office he ever sought.

Trump is unhinged.

local news

Time of My Life, Part 50: Virtual meeting triggers memory

I intend to watch most of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions … such as they are.

They are “virtual” affairs, with no delegates, no applause, no balloon drops. The nominees — Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump and Mike Pence — will deliver their acceptance speeches with no fans to cheer them on.

But these events that occur every four years do remind me of the two political conventions I was able to attend while working for a daily newspaper. The Beaumont Enterprise, in the Golden Triangle region of Texas, sent me to New Orleans in 1988 and to Houston in 1992 to cover and comment on two Republican national conventions.

I have to say that rarely have I had so much fun doing my job.

The COVID crisis has put a damper on the spectacle of these conventions. I hope the parties are able to resume them in 2024 and beyond. Why? Because they are so uniquely American in their atmosphere.

I have long been amazed at how grown men and women who gather in a convention hall to do some of the most serious business imaginable in a representative democracy can don goofy hats, adorn their clothing with buttons, drape bunting around their necks and carry on like school children. But they do all of that while nominating candidates to become president of the U.S. of A.

I was privileged to watch two of these events up close, first in the Superdome and then in the Astrodome.

In 1988, President Reagan strode to the podium to deliver a ringing endorsement of Vice President Bush, who was the party’s presidential nominee that year. After speaking to the adoring crowd, he and Nancy Reagan stood to accept the applause, then walked back toward the rear of the stage. I was sitting in the press gallery behind the podium and, so help me, the president and I made eye contact as he walked off the stage.

I got to meet the likes of Chris Matthews and the late Cokie Roberts. In 1988 in New Orleans I made the acquaintance of a young business executive named George W. Bush as we rode the elevator together up several floors. He asked me for my name and where I worked. I told him. He said, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of you.” Do I believe he was sincere? I’ll just take him at his word. Besides, it did make for interesting convention chatter with my colleagues.

The virtual conventions will deprive journalists of the kind of excitement I had the pleasure of enjoying.

I will await the day when the pandemic recedes and we can return to some semblance of normal life. Political conventions just aren’t the same without all the hustle, bustle and real-time tussle.

national news

The moment swept me away

I find myself at times trying to avoid getting caught up in moments when I see things occurring in real time.

It happened to me Monday night watching the opening of the Democratic National Committee’s virtual presidential nominating convention.

I have no need to stipulate that I want Joe Biden to become the next president. Oops! I just did!

Watching the assorted celebrities, politicians and oh yes, former first lady Michelle Obama make their case for why Biden is the right man at the right time to correct the wrong policies that Donald Trump has enacted almost swept me out of my chair.

The first night event was quite stirring, with testimonials from pandemic victims’ loved ones, from Republican politicians speaking on behalf of a Democratic politician. I also must give a shout out to the spine-tingling way the DNC presented the singing of the National Anthem.

I am left to wonder: How are the Republicans going to top this? How does Trump make anyone apart from the fervent base feel better about re-electing him as president? What is he going to say? How is he going to say it?

I am acutely aware that the Republican National Committee has its share of marketing geniuses and gurus. They’ll put on a show, too. Right now I am having difficulty imagining how they will top what the Democrats are prepared to deliver as the 2020 presidential campaign kicks into high gear.

national news

You go, John Kasich

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I’ll be brief.

John Kasich was my favorite Republican running for president in 2016. Had he won the GOP nomination, he likely would have gotten my vote over Hillary Clinton. Tonight he affirmed precisely why I admire the former Ohio governor.

He didn’t swill the Donald Trump Kool-Aid after losing to the eventual GOP nominee. He stands on the principle of good government.

He said he supports Joe Biden for president, even despite the men’s disagreements on policy. “That’s all right,” he said tonight in remarks to the Democratic National Convention. “That’s America.”

Yes it is, Gov. Kasich. Thank you for standing on principle.