Tag Archives: Election Day

national news, political news

It’s come to this: sexual conduct will decide this election?

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It’s down to the wire between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

With all the issues that separate the parties’ presidential nominees — trade, climate change, jobs, war and peace, terrorism — we’re left now to decide this election on … sexual misconduct.

The allegations are pouring in now.

The New York Times has published more stories about women alleging that Trump groped them. Trump is vowing to sue the newspaper. The Washington Post released that hideous video recording of Trump talking to “Access Hollywood” about his attempts to seduce a married woman and what he can get away with because of his “star” status.

Trump is now threatening to stay away next week from the final debate with Clinton because, he says, the debate format is “rigged.”

The GOP nominee’s poll numbers are plummeting. Meanwhile, Clinton’s team is airing feel-good TV ads extolling her work with children and women’s issues.

Trump’s own words — heard on the video recording — have caused many of his congressional supporters to revoke their endorsements, resulting in a virtual declaration of war against the Republican Party by its own presidential nominee!

Who in this world ever would have thought that could happen? Even in this utterly nonsensical election year?

I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to watching this circus act come to an end on the Eighth of November.

national news, political news

When in doubt, go with your gut

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A young friend of mine is going to vote this year for the first time in her life.

She is 23 years of age. She is torn over this election. Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? After visiting with her for a few minutes Tuesday, I concluded she is likely to vote for Trump.

But she said something I want to share here.

My friend said she is reluctant to vote for anyone without knowing all there is to know about the candidates, their views on public policy, their philosophy or their world view.

“I just don’t know what to do,” she said.

Her biggest concern about Clinton? Benghazi. My friend believes Clinton was responsible for the deaths that occurred there during that fire fight on Sept. 11, 2012. We tussled a bit over what Hillary knew in the moment, what she should have known and what she could have done to prevent it.

I told her later I’ve been voting for president since 1972. I cast my first vote that year with great pride and anticipation. That vote — the first one — still means more to me than all the other ballots I’ve cast.

“I voted for the guy who lost … big time,” I told her, “but it meant a great deal to me.”

When in doubt, I ended up telling my friend, “go with your gut.”

It doesn’t really matter that voters get their arms around every detail of every issue. All that matters, in my view, is that they feel comfortable in their own gut and heart with the choice they make.

national news, political news

Happy Labor Day weekend, y’all; now, get ready to rumble!

clinton and trump

This Labor Day weekend is going to be a special event for my wife and me.

Our wedding anniversary arrives on Sunday. It’s No. 45 for us. We’re having the time of our lives.

The holiday occurs on Monday.

It’s the unofficial “End of Summer.” Children are back in school. Life returns to some semblance of normal for millions of us.

And then …

We get to watch two individuals battle for the presidency of the United States of America. It won’t be pretty.

Let me revise that statement: This presidential campaign is going to be butt-ugly!

I’ve been watching this campaign intently for longer than I care to admit. I shall admit right along with many others that Donald J. Trump’s nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for president is arguably the most astonishing political event I’ve ever witnessed in my 66 years on the Good Earth.

I did not think it would happen. It did.

As for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, I once considered her to be destined to win the presidency in a way not seen since, oh, Dwight Eisenhower was destined to win in 1952.

That hasn’t happened, either. She’s still the favorite. She might become the prohibitive favorite by the time Election Day rolls around.

The two major-party candidates, though, are going to slug it out.

Some pundits are comparing the Clinton’s current strategy to Muhammad Ali’s tactic of leaning on the ropes and letting heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman punch himself out. By the eighth round of their fight in Zaire, Foreman was spent and Ali flattened him for a knockout.

The campaign will get uglier than it is at the moment — if that’s at all possible. They’re calling each other racists and bigots. Trump says Clinton lacks the “stamina” to do the job; Clinton says Trump’s temperament and lack of judgment make him “unfit” to run the greatest nation on Earth.

There’s plenty more of that in store for us.

Will the candidates tell us what they intend to do for us? Will they lay out some detail to explain how they’re going to work with Congress to govern effectively?

I expect neither of those things to happen.

Therefore, I intend to enjoy the dickens out of this Labor Day weekend.

The home stretch of this presidential election will be anything but a joy ride.

national news, political news

Counting down the days …

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A strange habit has grabbed hold of me.

I am finding myself counting down the days to Election Day. All that’s left is for me to put a short-timer’s calendar on the cabinet next to the desk in my home office.

We’ve got 86 days to go.

The last time I watched the calendar with such intensity, I believe, was when I was in the U.S. Army. The first calendar went up when I arrived in Vietnam in March 1969. Then I got home and I put another one up in Fort Lewis, Wash.

I haven’t been so anxious for the end of something as I was then.

This time, I am awaiting the end of this presidential election.

I am particularly tired of listening to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump say things that have nothing to do with public policy. His latest riff now is that the “only way I’ll lose” the election is if it’s “rigged.”

The culprit? Why, it’s “Crooked Hillary” Rodham Clinton, of course!

As for Clinton, I am weary of listening her try to avoid explaining why so many voters dislike her, why they distrust her.

My dear late mother used to warn me about “wishing your life away.” I would tell her, “Gee, Mom, I can’t wait for the weekend. I wish it would hurry up and get here.” That’s when she would issue the wise admonition.

Well, Mom? I’m at it again.

I cannot wait for this campaign to end.

Moreover, I just might put up that short-timer’s calendar.

national news, political news

It may be too late for Trump to ‘turn it around’

donald-trump

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s lead over Donald J. Trump is large — and it’s getting larger.

The pundit class, though, seems somewhat fixated on how the Republican Party’s presidential nominee can “turn it around” if he has a chance of defeating his Democratic Party opponent.

My own view is that Trump likely is well past the point of no return.

Will a speech do it? Does he need to embarrass Clinton at any of the three joint appearances scheduled? Forget about the VP encounter between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence; that won’t change a thing.

It looks for all the world as though Trump’s interminably long record of insults and his astonishing demonstration of ignorance about anything involving public policy has done him in.

How in the world does this buffoon/clown/carnival barker/con man/narcissist persuade voters now — at this point — that all that prior stuff was just a joke?

He cannot help himself. He cannot resist the urge to veer off into some nonsensical rant whenever he delivers what passes for a “campaign stump speech.”

He vows to “unify” the Republican Party, then he trashes the GOP leadership. Party hot shots are deserting him in droves. I heard last night that Trump was coming to Texas for a fundraiser, but the biggest donors in the state aren’t going to show up.

The only possible way for Clinton to lose this election would be for something truly terrible to come out about her. Or … she would have to drool all over herself or somehow revert to some form of Trump-like campaign stump-speech riff that makes as little sense as the stuff that’s been pouring out of Trump’s mouth for the past year.

Sure, the first thing is entirely possible. We might learn something egregious about Clinton. Then again, the most scrutinized and examined political candidate of the past quarter century has weathered lots of storms already.

I once wrote on this blog that the election figured to be a blowout. Then I thought Trump might make a race of it. I’m back to believing a rout is in the making.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2016/05/time-to-handicap-the-fall-election/

 

Intgernational news, national news, political news, Sports news

Olympics provide welcome relief

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Michael Phelps is such a refreshing respite from the vitriol and trash talk of Drumpf  …

Right there, I believe, lies the key to why the Rio de Janeiro Olympics have me so damn spell-bound.

It comes from a friend of mine’s social media post. You go, Jim!

It’s not just Michael Phelps’s quest for more Olympic swimming history, as if he hasn’t made enough of it already while splashing through the water for the United States of America.

And it’s not just Donald J. Trump’s trash talk that’s infuriated me as I watch this miserable presidential campaign unfold … although I admit that the GOP nominee has played the major role in that element of disgust.

Watching these young people compete has been quite joyful for me.

I didn’t expect it.

I instead expected most of the TV coverage to center on the dirty water, the Zika-virus-bearing bugs flying around Rio, the corruption of the Brazilian government and the crime that plagues one of the world’s great cities.

We keep hearing these great stories about Phelps conquering demons, about our U.S. female gymnasts living up to their huge hype and winning all that gold, about friendly rivalries that span the globe.

OK, so not all of it has been warm and fuzzy.

We’ve had the smack-down between a U.S. swimmer and her Russian rival over doping and the controversy associated with the entire Russian team’s participation in the Games; we’ve heard some criticism of one of our gymnasts for failing to put her hand over heart while the National Anthem was played during the medal ceremony; there’s been this and that on the sidelines seeking to distract us from the athletic competition.

It’s all diversionary material.

The presidential campaign awaits us after Labor Day.

Donald Trump will keep talking trash. Hillary Rodham Clinton will respond with her own brand of smack. Our disgust will mount. I am not looking forward to the final days of this campaign, as I’m sure they will bring out the worst in the candidates — not to mention the worst in voters who will work themselves into an all-out lather over what the “other” party’s candidate is saying.

I’m going to focus my attention for the next week on Rio.

The rest of it will be waiting when the Olympic flame goes out.

entertainment news, national news, political news

Rhetorical license? It’s worse than that

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Hollywood often is accused of taking too much “artistic license” while portraying historical events.

We all get that.

Can a politician, therefore, be accused of uttering statements with more than just a tad “rhetorical license”? Do they say things for effect? Well, sure they do.

But then you get Donald J. Trump saying things that are utterly astonishing in the extreme.

Such as when he said yesterday that President Barack H. Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton are the “founder” and “co-founder,” respectively, of the Islamic State.

I’ve just recently reassembled my noggin after it exploded when I heard that ridiculous assertion.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/politics/trump-obama-isis/index.html?sr=fbCNN081116/trump-obama-isis1042AMStoryLink&linkId=27549373

If the GOP nominee had been watching “the shows” to study up on foreign policy — which he has said he has done — he would have known what the rest of us know. It is that we are killing ISIS soldiers daily; we are targeting and killing ISIS leaders; we are in the midst of destroying the monstrous terrorist organization.

Gosh, why do you suppose the “founder” of ISIS would want to kill his very creation?

I understand fully that we can expect more of this from Trump. We’re going to hear some rhetorical flourishes as well from Clinton — and perhaps even from the president himself — as this campaign lurches toward Election Day on Nov. 8.

It’s just important to understand that just as filmmakers occasionally stretch the truth to make an artistic truth, politicians are known to much the same the thing.

Only in Trump’s case, his lying has dangerous consequences.

national news, political news

How do you ‘rig’ a U.S. presidential election?

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I’m going to crawl way out on a limb.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to win several states this fall that normally vote Republican in presidential elections.

I won’t suggest that Texas will be one of them. There are some others, though, that appear vulnerable to an electoral flip: Arizona comes to mind; Missouri, too; maybe North Carolina; and, yes, even Utah. Let me throw in Montana and the Dakotas just for giggles and grins.

Which brings to mind the weird prediction that Republican nominee Donald J. Trump has leveled at the electoral process. He says the election will be “rigged.”

My question centers on how you “rig” a national presidential election in which each state awards its Electoral College votes in a system run by state politicians.

The state’s I’ve mentioned have substantial Republican majorities in their legislatures. Missouri is governed by a Democrat, but it has gone Republican for several election cycles.

Trump, though, suggests that Clinton is going to manage to “rig” the election.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/president-obama-says-donald-trump%e2%80%99s-claim-that-election-will-be-rigged-is-%e2%80%98ridiculous%e2%80%99/ar-BBvgPV9?li=BBnbcA1

Trump provoked a strong response from President Obama, who today called the “rigging” accusation “ridiculous.”

The president mentioned that it’s impossible for him to understand how a candidate can suggest something like that would happen before the results are in. If the GOP nominee were leading by 15 points on Election Day and still lost, the president said, then he might have reason to question the results.

My point here, though, is that presidential elections aren’t really managed at a single location. They are managed in 50 state capitals, with its hefty share of Republican-controlled legislative chambers and governor’s offices.

Trump’s weird prediction, therefore, sounds like the whining of someone who knows he’s going to lose badly in about 96 days.

local news, political news

Still prefer to stand in long line to vote

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We went to the polling place tonight.

We arrived at the place where we usually vote. The parking lot at Arden Road Baptist Church was full. We walked through the door and turned left down the hall, walking past a long, long line of Randall County residents.

We made another turn down another hall and took our place at the end of the line.

It took five minutes past an hour before we cast our ballots.

Man, it was fun!

I remain committed to voting on Election Day. I remain equally committed to the manner we do it in Texas. We have this open primary system. We all stand in the same line. We inch our way to the room with the voting booths. We declare which party we want to vote in. We cast our ballots. Then we leave.

We don’t register with political parties. We make our choice on Election Day — or least we declare our choice when we reach the end of the line.

There’s a certain pageantry to standing in long lines with other citizens seeking to exercise their rights as Americans. We chatted among ourselves, careful of course not to talk about partisan preferences. We joked with election judges who came out to remind us of the need to have our photo ID and voter registration cards handy.

Some states — such as my home state of Oregon — do all their voting by mail. That’s fine, too, I guess. It boosts turnout, which is the best outcome of that process.

However, I remain an old-fashioned kind of guy. There just remains a certain semblance of ceremony attached to going to the polling place, waiting in line, chatting up your neighbors and then doing your civic duty.

I love the process.

 

local news, political news

MPEV debate has been robust; now … just vote

Close view of a collection of VOTE badges. 3D render with HDRI lighting and raytraced textures.

There really isn’t much more to say about the upcoming  Big Decision that awaits Amarillo voters on Tuesday.

The city’s downtown multipurpose event venue is up for grabs. Do we build it with a ballpark … or not? That’s the issue facing voters as they’ll decide on a non-binding municipal referendum.

I’m all in on the $32 million MPEV. I favor the current design. I favor its funding mechanism. I believe in the concept. I support the way it has been executed. I have faith in the promise it will deliver to the city’s downtown business district.

There. That’s how I feel about it.

I do want to acknowledge that the debate on this issue has been pretty vigorous. I’ve been glad to contribute some of it through this blog, which gets distributed various social media outlets.

It’s been an interesting journey so far. Quite a few of those who follow this blog on Facebook have challenged each other — and me — on the issues surrounding the MPEV. I’ve chosen to mainly avoid the give-and-take, although some of my Facebook “friends” and even some actual friends have sought to goad me into arguing out loud.

I generally don’t have the time or the patience or the stomach to engage in lengthy debates. I prefer instead to put my thoughts out there and let others have at it.

They have done so and, I am going to presume, their views have been shared along their own networks of friends/associates/acquaintances/loved ones.

Hey, I’m happy to play a part in this community discussion.

But after Tuesday, the discussion will enter a new phase — no matter how the vote turns out.

I plan to take part in that ongoing conversation as well.

Until then, though, get out and vote!