media news, national news, political news

Heartened by media performance

The so-called “mainstream media” are doing the job for which their practitioners signed on as they cover the campaign of the idiot who wants to return to the Oval Office.

I believe they have learned from the mistakes they made when they “covered” his initial campaign president starting with his announcement at the NYC tower that bears his name (for now!).

The media chose to essentially give him a pass on the lies that poured out of his mouth. They gave him space in newspapers and airtime on TV and radio, letting him say things about other politicians, immigrants, war heroes and the dispossessed without challenging the veracity of the claims he made.

Not so in this election cycle, or to some degree the 2020 election cycle when he sought to be re-elected as POTUS.

The four years of the moron’s time as president taught many in the media a bitter lesson, which was that it was duty-bound to call him a “liar” when they detected an untruth spilling out of his overfed pie hole. Only a few commentators, I recall at the time, had the fortitude to call him what he was, is and always will be: a liar.

The media now have the court system to buttress what many of us known all along. A New York court has determined, for instance, that The Former Guy lied to bankers about his wealth to obtain favorable loans. He overstated his self-proclaimed empire, he got caught doing it and has been adjudicated to be a bald-faced liar in a court of law.

Of course, we have The Big Lie, which the former Moron in Chief has used to suggest that the 2020 election was rigged against him. I’ve lost count of the number of court decisions that have declared those allegations to be false. He keeps fomenting The Big Lie and his cult followers continue to buy into it.

Moreover, the media now are reporting the lies up front and with all due vigor and professionalism. They didn’t do so when he first entered the political arena in the summer of 2015.

I am grateful that my former colleagues are doing their jobs now. May they continue to keep us informed … as they must.

environmental news, local news

Goodness survives the flames

Stories about fire that rages out of control bring fear and hopelessness to many of us; we worry about what it all means and the lives it affects.

It seems the Texas Panhandle wildfires that have burned something far north of a million acres of rangeland would produce so little news to cheer.

Then I hear about all the trucks hauling hay into the fire zone. The hay is being trucked in to feed the livestock that has survived the inferno. It’s coming from neighboring ranches unaffected by the rampaging flames.

These demonstrations of selflessness remind us of the good that resides in the hearts of those who feel the pain being inflicted on those who must face down nature’s fiery wrath.

I no longer have a personal stake in what is happening in the Panhandle region of this great state. We moved away from there in 2018. Our son sold his home this past year to move near his brother’s family and me after my dear bride passed away.

I do have friends remaining in the region. I know of at least two families that have evacuated their homes and then returned once the danger had passed; they are thanking God Almighty their homes are still intact.

I am going to cling to the knowledge of the good that has presented itself as the remote region of Texas fights the flames. May it remind us of the good in humanity that fire cannot destroy.

national news, political news

Who’s the real RINO?

The adherents of the 45th POTUS have redefined a long-held term: Republican In Name Only.

The only way now to be classified a RINO these days is to disagree with the cult leader’s world view or criticism him for it … such as it is. You agree with the idiot, you’re good. You disagree, you become subject to censure or worse, expulsion from a once-great political party.

Sen. Mitt Romney recently declared that “absolutely not” will he vote for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee this November. He hasn’t said who will get his vote, not that I care. Let’s remember that we cast our votes in secret, so it’s no one’s damn business who votes for whom.

He’s already getting the RINO barbs flung at him by the cult followers. He earned their misplaced scorn by voting to convict their hero in the first impeachment trial held in the Senate.

In reality, though, the real RINO is the cult leader. He ran as a Republican in 2016 because it provided him the easiest path to victory. Dude actually said so!

Does he know about basic Republican doctrine? Does he care to learn about it? Does he give a crap about anything other than fattening his own wallet? No, no and no!

The term RINO these days ought to be seen as a badge of honor by real Republicans who happen to be appalled at their party’s most recent and reportedly future presidential nominee.

If only they could — or would — deny him the power he craves.

national news, political news

Wait for ‘RINO!’ epithet

Mitt Romney, the Republican junior senator from Utah, has made his choice for president clear … which is that he will “absolutely not” vote for the presumptive GOP nominee this year.

Romney famously called the former POTUS a “phony and a fraud” in 2016. Then he became the first senator to vote to convict a president from his own party when the former Liar in Chief stood trial in the first of two impeachments.

Romney says “character counts” for his vote. Thus, he cannot vote for the party’s nominee if it happens to be the idiot who stands ready to accept the Republican nomination.

The fans of the ex-POTUS are going to proclaim Romney to be a Republican In Name Only. Why? Because he isn’t loyal to the moron who once held the presidency.

Hey, Sen. Mitt Romney is much more of a Republican than the guy he opposes.

legal news, national news, political news

Now … the trials await

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The talking heads have been blabbing and blathering about the U.S. Supreme Court decision to hear the case involving presidential immunity as it regards the most recent former POTUS.

The decision likely will delay the trial that the ex-POTUS is claiming shouldn’t take place because he has some form of immunity against any of the charges brought against him.

The former Liar in Chief has four criminal trials awaiting him. The first one will occur in New York state court and will determine whether he broke campaign finance laws when he paid off an adult film star to keep quiet about a one-night tumble the two of them allegedly took before he became a candidate for president.

The trial is set to begin in March. It could end in a few weeks and, get this, the former POTUS could end up being convicted of a felony. This trial could conclude well before the November presidential election.

Then we have the three other trials. One of them involves his role in inciting the mob assault on the government; another involves his pilfering of classified documents as he left the White House; a third case is set for Fulton County, Ga., and it involves allegations that the former POTUS sought to interfere with election results.

Of the four, the first one — involving the porn star — is likely to go first.

Then the former Moron in Chief’s supporters will have to decide whether they really want to vote for a candidate who’s been convicted of a felony. Fifty percent of Republicans have made it known they cannot vote for a convicted felon.

One also has to ask why the SCOTUS chose to hear the case that had been tossed by two lower courts that ruled the former POTUS had no claim to immunity. Four justices voted to hear the case, which is all that was required. Let us hope for all our worth that the court isn’t trying to delay this matter beyond the November election.

I am going to rely on my belief in reports that Chief Justice John Roberts is concerned about the court’s public standing and will work to ensure that it decides this matter quickly. Then a trial can commence and perhaps be concluded in time for voters to make this critical decision.

The SCOTUS clearly has complicated matters unnecessarily.

national news

Nothing wrong with note cards

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As Republicans continue to make President Biden’s alleged intellectual slippage an issue, I am intrigued by a recent criticism that has emerged.

The president uses note cards to conduct meetings with public officials. My response? Big fu**ing deal! There is nothing wrong with an individual who happens to be president of the world’s most powerful nation relying on written notes to help guide him through sensitive discussions.

I recall that President Reagan relied on note cards when he met with individuals. I also recall that Democrats took pot shots at Reagan for what they implied was a sign that he had slipped a bit, too.

One of my favorite critics happened to be the congressman who represented me in the House of Representatives, Democrat Jack Brooks of Beaumont, Texas. Brooks routinely would come to visit us at the Beaumont Enterprise and usually took time to swipe at Reagan. He actually once criticized Reagan’s use of note cards as a crutch.

But … guess what! Brooks did the very same thing! He, too, would meet with our editorial board and would glance at note cards to remind him of points he intended to make.

I am not the least bit concerned about President Biden’s mental acuity. He slips up occasionally, misstating people’s names or saying he’s been somewhere when he hasn’t. BFD, man!

As for the note cards, let the man scribble a note or two on them to remind him of the topic at hand. It’s part of doing business in a highly complicated world.

local news

Death of ‘local news’?

I am going to salute a young man I have known for some time, as we were colleagues in the Texas Panhandle … I worked for the newspaper and he worked for a local broadcast outlet.

Here is what Kelly James posted today: I’m calling it. Time of death for local news was 2/27/2024 at 5pm, 6pm, 9pm and 10pm. While homes were literally being lost to fire in Fritch and surrounding communities, all of the local stations were not doing their jobs. If there’s even a hint of severe weather, their coverage is wall-to-wall. But people actually losing their homes and possibly their lives is not important enough to interrupt Wheel of Fortune or Entertainment Tonight. Before anyone offers any excuses, let me just say, I’ve been there before. It can be done. It just takes guts and integrity to do the job. They should all be embarrassed. I am for them.

Guts and integrity? It doesn’t even require either of those traits. How about a commitment to the craft they chose to pursue?

Kelly James is rightfully angry and indignant, however.

The wildfires in the Texas Panhandle have been astonishing in their scope. Last I heard, a fire that was burning northeast of Amarillo had consumed 300,000 acres of grassland was “zero percent contained!”

I spoke today with a former colleague of mine and she reported that air quality had gone from fair to intolerable. “There were ashes falling from the sky,” she told me. The smoke is burning people’s eyes. I mentioned something about “65 mph wind gusts.” Her response? “They weren’t ‘gusts.’ The wind was constant.”

According to my friend, Kelly James, the TV news outlets were asleep on the job. They were derelict in their duty to report the news to a public that needed to know what in the world is happening to its communities.

James didn’t mention the Globe-News. Hmm. I guess it’s a given that a once-substantial newspaper — that has become a mere shadow of itself — is unable to do the job of reporting local news.

What we have here is the demise of what used to be a staple of every community in the land.

Good bye, local news.

political news, religious news

Perverts preaching Christian doctrine

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Jesus Christ would be appalled at what passes these days for teaching in his name.

There. I said out loud what has been gnawing at me for decades.

OK, I have to acknowledge that as a Christian, I must assume that Jesus knows what is happening. After all, the son of God, is … well, God, right? So he knows.

This notion of Christian nationalism, though, is beginning to bother me in the extreme. It presumes the nation’s founders created a nation steeped in Christian teaching, that the nation adheres to Christianity and that it ignores or dismisses the faith of others who happen to be devoted to a deity other than Jesus Christ.

I have read the New Testament since, oh, I was a little boy. That is more than 70 years! I don’t profess to know what every chapter and verse says. But I have learned that I am entitled to interpret it as narrowly or broadly as I choose.

On most matters, I take a broad view of what the Bible tells us.

These so-called Christian nationalists also seem to take an overly broad view of what Jesus taught us while he walked the Earth. He said his way was the only way to heaven. I get that part. What I cannot swallow is the notion of condemning others who do not follow Jesus’s teaching. That is what I hear the Christian nationalists doing.

Is that in keeping with what Jesus taught the world? No. It isn’t. Those who purport that it is have perverted the holy word to a level I do not — and cannot — recognize.

They inject their version of Christianity into our secular politics where, in my ever-so-humble view, it does not belong. I believe strongly that religion belongs exclusively in houses of worship, not on street corners or in campaign rallies.

economic news, national news

Age = experience

So, the talking point now on the 2024 election appears to be that Joe Biden is “too old” to continue as president of the United States.

What … utter … pig … dookie!

President Biden met earlier this week with four congressional leaders of both parties in the White House. Present were Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The word coming out of the meeting? The fear of a government shutdown effective on Saturday appears to have waned … significantly! How’s that?

Well, it appears that Biden brought his 36 years of experience as a U.S. senator to bear. Oh, he also had those eight years as VP prior to being elected president in 2020.

The man’s experience in working through these knotty matters is invaluable. He knows the language of the Senate; he’s fluent in it, given that he spoke it for so long.

I am not going to accept any notion that POTUS’s mental acuity is in decline. Yes, he’s got lots of miles piled onto his 81-year-old body. However, he is continuing to demonstrate an ability to work through the gritty details of government.

He knows the complexities of working with such a cumbersome form of government that we have in this constitutional republic of ours. I am now thinking of the probable alternative to a president who has devoted his entire professional life to public service.

I will settle any day of the week for the experience that Joe Biden brings to work every day over the chaos that no doubt will accompany the idiot who wants the job that President Biden continues to do well.

environmental news, State news

Yes on DST!

My man cave wall calendar caught my eye this morning as I was getting my day started.

It told me that on March 10 we return to Daylight Saving Time. My first reaction? Why can’t we just make it a permanent feature of our calendar? No need to switch to Standard Time in the fall and then back to DST in the spring.

We go through this drill every year. We switch back and forth and every … single … year we hear the same gripes from those who bitch about their body clocks needing adjustment. How they cannot get used to the extra hour of daylight in the evening or having to “fall back” in the autumn.

Personally, I never have had a problem with switching to Daylight Time and then back to Standard Time. However, if we’re going to keep bitching about doing it, my own preference would be to keep the Daylight Saving Time as a permanent fixture.

I like the extended daylight in the late spring and summer months. As for the fall and winter months, well … I wouldn’t care. It gets darker earlier in that time of the year.

The Texas Legislature a couple of sessions ago toyed with the idea of asking Texans what they preferred. The proposed resolution would have placed three issues on the ballot: Keep it as it is; permanent DST; or permanent Standard Time. I was prepared to vote for permanent Daylight Saving Time … but then the Legislature couldn’t get its crap together in time to put the issue on the ballot.

Maybe the 2025 Legislature can get organized early enough when it convenes in January to enable us to decide what we want to do. I know that’s a big ask, given the nature of our Legislature and the idiocy that seems to govern the legislative flow at times.

I’ll hope for the best. Meantime, I am going to enjoy Daylight Saving Time when it arrives in a couple of weeks.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience