Monthly Archives: September 2020

Donald Trump

POTUS fails the troops

I cannot let this story go. It is so upsetting that it fills me with rage whenever I think about it, which happens to be quite often.

Donald Trump is reported to have branded fallen warriors “suckers” and “losers.” He cannot stand the sight of injured servicemen and women. The Atlantic is reporting these details. Trump denies them.

Fine. He can deny them all he wants. I happen to believe the reporting, which I find credible and thoroughly sourced.

We know he has said publicly that the late Sen. John McCain, a former Vietnam War prisoner, was “a hero only because he was captured.”

Let’s couple this with reports that Trump has yet to challenge Russian strongman Vladimir Putin over reports that Russian spooks paid bounties to Taliban terrorists for Americans killed in battle.

Is there a pattern here?

The idea that Donald Trump would refer to fallen U.S. warriors as “losers” is abhorrent on its face. Then I couple that with reports of bounties being placed on the men and women he sends into harm’s way and his failure to act on those allegations.

Both elements are infuriating to a maximum degree. They also seem so very believable.

Think about the commander in chief talking as he reportedly has done about those who have fallen in battle. Think, too, about a commander in chief who wouldn’t demand a full explanation from the leader of a hostile power about an allegation that he has paid terrorists a bounty for killing our battlefield heroes.

Despicable, yes? It is … and much more. This individual took an oath to protect us against our enemies. That most certainly applies to the men and women who stand as our front line of defense against enemy soldiers. Donald Trump has failed to fulfill his sacred oath.

There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind — certainly not in my own mind — that Donald Trump is unfit to serve.

military news

Who’s the ‘loser’?

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I went to sleep last night after having just read a horrifying tale detailing Donald Trump’s profound disrespect for men and women who have paid the price of defending our freedom against our enemies.

I awoke this morning still believing what I had read.

The Atlantic has reported a litany of examples of Trump disparaging the service that our military personnel have performed. Not to mention the price some of paid with their very lives.

The reporting by Jeffrey Goldberg appears to be well-sourced … and it is credible.

What gives the story its credibility, at least to me, are the words that Trump blurted out in public in 2015 when he was asked to comment on the service performed by the late Sen. John McCain. Someone asked Trump if he considered McCain to be a war hero. Trump’s answer spoke volumes.

McCain is a “hero only because he was captured” by the North Vietnamese after being shot down during the Vietnam War, Trump said. Then he said, “I like those who aren’t captured, OK?”

Can there be any more validation of what Jeffrey Goldberg reported than Trump’s own words? Of course, Trump denies disparaging those who served and died in defense of the nation. The White House has issued a denial as well. You would expect that from both the president and those who work for him.

However, the ring of truth to what has been reported is clanging in my ear. I happen to believe that the man with no public service in his pre-presidency background, the guy who sought bogus medical deferments from serving in the Vietnam War is fully capable of saying what has been reported.

I believe we have been handed a graphic and hideous example of this individual’s unfitness for the job he is trying to keep.

If you read the entire story that I have attached here, I trust you’ll be as horrified as I am. The real “loser” in this episode is the individual who has thrown the term around about our nation’s heroes.

military news

Trump goes beyond reprehensible

The news story I have attached to this blog post says more than I am able to articulate.

It comes from The Atlantic. It is written by Jeffrey Goldberg. It contains multiple sources and it lays out for the entire world to see that Donald J. Trump holds no regard, no respect, zero empathy for those who have served in the nation’s military, let alone those who have been injured or killed in defense of the nation.

You can read the story here.

I will let Goldberg’s reporting stand on its own. It speaks clearly and unequivocally to what many millions have suspected, if not known outright, that Donald Trump is the most despicable individual who has ever sat in the office he now occupies.

I am one American veteran, someone who went to war briefly for the nation we all love, who is rendered virtually speechless at what I have read about the commander in chief.

State news

Abbott wants to take over Austin PD?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott seems to have been taken in by Donald Trump’s penchant for authoritarian rule.

Abbott is considering whether to send in the Department of Public Safety to take over police duties from the Austin Police Department. What prompted this bit of heavy-handedness? The Austin City Council has voted to take a good bit of money away from Austin PD, which has enraged Abbott to the point of seeking permission to send in the state cops to do the city cops’ work.

This would be a serious overreach from the governor’s office into city hall’s purview.

Abbott, of course, cannot do this all by himself. He needs the Legislature to step in. How does he do that? Does he call a special legislative session, which would cost the state even more money it doesn’t have in the wake of the COVID crisis?

According to the Texas Tribune: “This proposal for the state to takeover the Austin Police Department is one strategy I’m looking at,” Abbott tweeted. “We can’t let Austin’s defunding & disrespect for law enforcement to endanger the public & invite chaos like in Portland and Seattle.”

I want to be clear on this point: I disagree with the city’s decision to defund its police department. I think police “reform” can occur without taking money away from departments such as the one in Austin. Thus, I am dismayed at the entire “defund the police” movement that has taken root in many communities across the nation.

I believe some police departments need a serious retooling of their procedures and policies. I mean, shooting someone in the back seven times while he is fleeing an officer suggests to me a serious breakdown in effective law enforcement. And don’t get me started on the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis.

I also disagree, though, with the governor’s reaction to what is a local funding decision. It might be that since the governor resides in Austin, given that it’s the state capital city, that he is taking the defunding issue personally. If that is the case, then he needs to get over himself.

The Texas Legislature and the governor need to allow Austin to wrestle through this issue. If the city council has made the wrong decision to defund the police department, Austin voters can take matters into their own hands.

I believe that’s what they mean when they refer to “local control.”

local news

Happy Trails, Part 186: Not missing the land line

When you retire from the working world, I have found that you embark on a series of new customs. You at times forsake the old way for the new way and then hope the new way feels as comfortable as what you had all those years ago.

So it has been with my phone service.

My wife and I disconnected our land line several months before we moved from Amarillo to the Metroplex. We moved into our fifth wheel and lived in it while we prepared our house for sale.

We both had been tethered to the land line since we were children. My parents had no choice, naturally; neither did hers. We found ourselves with that kind of choice our parents never had.

So we disconnected our land line. We rely exclusively these days on our cell phones.

Let me stipulate that I do not use my cell phone for many tasks other than speaking to people. I do take pictures with it. I use a number of apps on the device, such as the Google app that guides me to unfamiliar locations. There are some others as well.

What I find myself doing, though, is leaving my cell phone at home if I take off to run a local errand. I look at the device this way: If someone wants to talk to me, they can call my cell phone, leave a message and I’ll answer it when I return from my errand. Hey, it’s like the old days! Except that the phone isn’t hooked up to a wire coming out of the wall.

So I am able to pretend I have a land line when I don’t. It works out well for me. Even when I have the cell phone with me, I am able to say with a clear conscience that I do not miss the land line.

Adaptability is all it’s cracked up to be.

national news

Trump to NC voters: Hey, break the law! Vote twice!

Donald J. Trump, who in 2016 invited Russia to hack into our electoral system, has now encouraged North Carolina voters to commit an illegal act.

He says they should seek to vote twice to test the state’s voting system, to see if it is as fail safe against voter fraud as state officials insist it is.

What in the name of good government have we come to in this country? The president of the United States, who took an oath to follow the law and to be faithful to the U.S. Constitution, is now suggesting that voters in one of our states break the law.

He is encouraging voters to cast their ballots by mail and by voting in person at the polling place. Good grief! This individual is nuttier than a fruitcake.

To think that he continues to cling to the support of roughly 40 percent of the voting public — give or take a point or two — simply blows my mind!

Trump is unhinged. Get a load of what Reuters is reporting as well: Voting more than once in an election is illegal and in some states, including North Carolina, it is a felony not only to vote more than once but also to induce another to do so.

Do you know what this means? It means we have a felon sitting in the Oval Office.

Arrest that man … and lock him up!

national news

Avoiding the ‘horse race’

The coverage of the Joe Biden-Donald Trump race for president is testing my patience.

It is so heavily focused on the “horse-race” aspect of the effort. Who’s up? Who’s down? Trend lines? Statistical probabilities? Betting odds?

It’s making my head spin.

If the 2016 campaign taught us anything, it ought to have taught us to dive much more deeply into the issues driving the campaign than the horse race aspect of it. Hillary Clinton won more votes than Trump. But she lost the race. You know the drill: Trump won enough Electoral College votes to eke out a victory, only to lie relentlessly about his “landslide” victory over Hillary.

In fact, though, Hillary’s final vote total reflected almost exactly what the average of the polls showed on Election Day.

But we now have a new contest. Joe Biden is “ahead” at the moment. I just don’t want to get fixated on that part of the campaign. I want to call attention on this blog to the differences in the candidates’ stance on issues … although it is damn near impossible to determine what Donald Trump thinks about anything of substance.

I’ll just have to persevere through the rest of this campaign. I will do my level best to ignore the polls. If only the media would stop reminding me hourly of where the candidates stand in relation to each other’s standing.

I’m ready to vote. I am ready for this chapter to end. I am ready to get on with the rest of the story, wherever it leads.

national news

Perfect end to campaign might produce chaotic transition of power

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My version of a perfect world includes Donald Trump losing the presidency of the United States to Joseph R. Biden in about, oh, 62 days.

It includes a significant Biden victory in both the actual ballots cast and in the Electoral College. Trump, though, is sending plenty of signals that he well might not go silently into the night, concede the contest, offer his full cooperation and then let the new team take over.

I have retired my trick knee, the one that betrayed me badly by allowing me to predict a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016.

So I want to offer this observation of what might occur if my perfect world plays out in November and we elect Joe Biden the next president.

The transition is going to be a cluster fu** of the first magnitude.

Does anyone really expect Trump to provide a smooth transition from one administration to the next one?

I am trying to imagine Joe and Jill Biden arriving at the White House to be greeted by Donald and Melania Trump. Do you see the couples smiling at each other, posing for the cameras?

Moreover, something tells me that no one should be surprised if Donald and Melania Trump don’t even attend the inaugural of the next president. Yes, I believe that Donald Trump is that much of a sore loser, that he would decide to forgo the boos that would rein down on him as he watches Biden take the oath of office.

Donald Trump’s entire presidency has been a case study in chaos and confusion. Why would anyone expect a transition to the next president to be anything other than what we have witnessed.

It won’t be pretty. However, political perfection need not always be a thing of beauty.

local news, national news

Going to vote early … on the first day

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

I cannot even believe I am saying this, but I must blurt it out.

Texas opens its polling places for early voting on Oct. 13. I intend to be among the first in line to cast my ballot for president of the United States of America.

I will be wearing my mask. I’ll have my spray-on hand sanitizer in my pocket. I will keep a socially distant space between myself and the total strangers with whom I intend to be standing.

You see, this represents a monumental sea change for yours truly. I am one who is wedded to the pageantry of voting on Election Day. I have enjoyed Election Day voting since I cast my first ballot in the spring of 1972 when I voted in Oregon’s Democratic primary.

Every presidential election year since has seen my wife and me troop to the polls on Election Day.

Not this year.

The coronavirus pandemic has me worried about getting infected. My wife is even more militant about the measures we need to take than I am. Texas isn’t likely to join several other states in requiring mail-in voting, given our state’s political leadership and its fealty to Donald Trump, who suggests — wrongly, I have to say — that mail-in voting is fraught with corruption. He’s lying.

So my wife and I will troop to the polls on Oct. 13. We will cast our votes as early as possible. We want them logged into the high-powered electronic system they use in Collin County. I heard this week that the Allen Event Center will open as a voting center for county residents. It is a spacious venue that will enable voters to practice social distancing while casting their ballots. I will be there among those early voters.

You know who will get my presidential vote. It won’t be the incumbent. Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice among the huge field of Democrats running initially. Indeed, I really never found anyone among the field who stood out.

Biden is the last man standing. He endured the grueling process. He won a key endorsement on the eve of the South Carolina primary, which he then won handily … and he never looked back.

So now I’m all in for Joe.

The process through which he gets my support, though, is the element I want to underscore. We live in perilous times as the nation battles a pandemic that continues to kill Americans at a heartbreaking rate. I do not want to risk becoming infected.

So, if voting early enables me to do my civic duty proudly while staying safe from a killer virus, that’s the way it’s going to be.

medical news

COVID deaths overcounted? Really?

Can it be that Joni Ernst is really and truly that much of a nitwit?

The Iowa Republican U.S. senator has said that the nation’s death count from the coronavirus pandemic might be exaggerated because doctors and other medical workers get greater reimbursements related to COVID deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the death count at 184,000 … and rising.

Sen. Ernst is offering yet another GOP-hatched conspiracy theory that flies in the face in the counter evidence that suggests that the death count might be even greater than what the CDC is reporting.

Why is that? Because there might be a hidden number of deaths that weren’t diagnosed as being related to the virus. That number could be thousands more than what CDC is telling us.

Is this a function of a lack of tests to determine infection rates? Might it be that poor Americans who don’t have access to proper medical treatment are succumbing to the disease without ever knowing they were infected in the first place?

I happen to one American who is more inclined to believe in the undercounted notion than the one that Ernst is pushing.