Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Sorted by date Results 1843 - 1867 of 3749
Time to look back Today we have Donald Trump, who wants to round-up all the Muslims and put them in a camp. Talk about timing. About a week ago, when I received the January-February 2017 edition of the Smithsonian, I turned to page 88, and up pops an article, entitled American-Incarceration, that hit home. The article contained personal stories about the 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII that were rounded-up and put into “detention” camps. Some of these camps were located on the east side of Washington state and even Idaho. It hit hom... Full story
Let's call him President-elect Tweety Bird. Donald Trump clearly has decided that he will continue to utilize his stream-of-consciousness Twitter messages to intimidate others -- whether it is an individual whose actions or comments have bruised his fragile ego; or a corporation that faces his threats because he believes (correctly or not) that it is shutting down American facilities for the promise of cheap labor across the border; or the "liars" in the "dishonest media" who dare to report on you-name-it unfavorably. He has commented on issues...
Friday is inauguration day. Donald J. Trump will become the 45th President of the United States. Some political leaders are vowing not to attend the ceremony, claiming Trump is not a legitimate president. Others will not attend simply because they don’t want him to be president. There will be protests. In fact, at last count 25 activist groups have received clearance to demonstrate at the event. That is five times the average for presidential inaugurations. Reportedly, a number of motorcycle clubs will attend in support of Trump. From Friday o...
The late Yogi Berra coined the phrase “it’s déjà vu all over again!” It is used extensively to describe political miscues. Case in point: ObamaCare. Recently, Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel wrote a column describing President Obama’s failure with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “The vision of the president calling on his party members to–yet again–lay down their political lives for his ‘signature’ law was a reminder of how this disaster began.” Unfortunately, Republicans, who now control Congress and the White House, may be poised to...
Back in 2008 when Obama and McCain were getting into their campaigns I wrote an identical letter to each of them. I explained that although I considered these United States to be the greatest country in the history of the universe I had some concerns. My letter said that my top concern was our national debt. We were borrowing to fund our routine expenses. It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that this cannot be continued forever. The interest on the debt was our largest single expense. Sooner or later we will run out of borrowing power. To m...
We've come a long way from Daniel Patrick Moynihan excoriating the U.N.'s 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution in one of the finer exhibits of righteous indignation in the history of American speechifying. The Obama administration acceded to -- and, reportedly, assisted behind the scenes -- a less notorious but still noxious Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. By the administration's lights, the action is clever -- it will be extremely difficult to reverse and will increase Israel's international isolation. But the... Full story
Forget about the honeymoon being over. There won't be any honeymoon. If you're thinking my outburst came because I had a bad reaction to all the sugar in my Froot Loops this morning, that's always possible. But in this case, I'm merely expressing the dismal reality that Donald Trump will face when he becomes the 45th president of the United States. Usually, when someone is inaugurated as the new chief executive, he starts out with a bit of goodwill, at least for a few weeks while his administration gets its bearings. That certainly will not be...
It was 10 years ago January 9th. On that day in 2007, the late Steve Jobs made one of the greatest new product introductions in history. Had he been alive today, he may have regretted it. The stunning iPhone and its quick and ubiquitous copies from Samsung, Google, Microsoft, etc., made what was already established on the internet that much more potent. Texting exploded because of how easy it was. Facebook and YouTube came to the phone. Instagram and sexting were next. Texting while driving skyrocketed, leading to national campaigns to prevent... Full story
The number of police officers shot and killed last year rose dramatically. So did the number of assaults on cops and the stress under which they work. That trend ought to concern every American because violence impacts our neighborhoods, schools and where we work and shop. Ask any realtor and they will tell you that safe streets and good schools are top of mind among renters and home buyers. Officers Down, the group sponsoring the national law enforcement memorial, reported that 140 officers died in the line of duty in 2016. Gunfire claimed... Full story
Required English? A century ago Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed that people who came to America and wanted to become citizens must be fluent in English. He had a strong belief that language is what binds a country together. The fight for having English as our official language became more serious in 1968. La Raza, an organization that wants us to be multi-lingual which is backed by the blue party, was formed that year. Finally, a Hawaiian senator organized U.S. English in 1983. They presented congress with a resolution in 1996. A poll was taken to... Full story
My loyal readers, both of them, possibly remember that I've long championed some outside-the-box ways to reduce the deficit before we're overwhelmed with national debt. High on the list is naming rights. Our agencies could rake in billions of dollars by allowing corporations and other deep-pocketed special interests to hang their logos on our buildings. It would be a symbol not only of the oligarchs' patriotism, but a way of showing that they've totally taken over and will direct the policies developed inside. In spite of the obvious merit of t...
Donald Trump was supposed to take over the Republican Party, but the question going forward will be whether the Republican Party takes over him. So far the early legislative agenda of Republicans after the Trump revolution is shaping up to be what you would have expected prior to the Trump revolution. It's a cookie-cutter GOP program that any Republican who ran for president in the past 40 years would feel comfortable signing, with its prospective centerpiece being another round of across-the-board tax cuts. This is why the Democratic approach...
Remember the lady who was burned by McDonald’s coffee when the cup tipped over and the coffee spilled on her lap? She sued the fast-food giant for injuries. To the surprise of many, she won a massive award, apparently because nobody had told her that fresh coffee might be hot. Now, some grieving parents are suing the computer company Apple. In 2014, this couple was hit from behind by a 20-year-old driver on a Texas highway. The man was traveling at approximately 65 miles an hour. He was allegedly chatting on FaceTime, the two-way visual c... Full story
As 2017 approaches, it is fascinating to look back at the vast changes in our lives over the last century and then imagine where we may be headed in the next 25 years. It is hard to picture that in the year 1900, more than 100,000 horses were in New York City. However, in 1917 the final horse-drawn carts, cabs and carriages left the city to be replaced by trucks, cars and buses. Henry Ford had perfected the “horseless carriage.” The Economist, a London-based magazine, highlighted the transformation in special report on the future of oil. Whi... Full story
In 2012 when Washington state was hotly debating legalizing recreational marijuana, I kept my thoughts to myself. I had never used pot in any form but realized that our national drug policies were not working. There was widespread disregard for the laws. Even Hollywood seemed to condone non-compliance. TV detective shows routinely had police officers tell suspects, “I’m not concerned about the drugs, I’m after something bigger.” We had to do something different. So, in the end, I reluctantly supported I-502, believing that it would spur th...
The Democrats have a simple explanation for Hillary Clinton's loss -- the Russians did it. The party that has had a decades-long soft spot toward Moscow and been reluctant to believe that the Kremlin might have aggressive intentions or, say, cheat on an arms-control agreement is in a frenzy over Russian hacking that supposedly denied Hillary the victory that was rightfully hers. John Podesta, the chairman of a Hillary campaign that considered accepting the results of an election part of American writ as of about two months ago, refused several...
There is a really good reason to support Senate confirmation of Rex Tillerson to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state: Tony Perkins opposes him. Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, otherwise known as the Bedroom Busybodies. He blasted out a statement condemning ExxonMobil CEO Tillerson as a person who "not only led the charge to open the Boy Scouts to gay troop leaders but whose company directly gives to Planned Parenthood." Tillerson was, in fact, active in the Boy Scouts and did lead the effort to open...
The Gazette has been around for a long time. It was first published the year after General Armstrong Custer was defeated at the Little Big Horn and the United States celebrated its centennial. In 1877, the founding year of the Gazette, the Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph tried to escape Idaho for Canada, being stopped in Montana in the dead of winter. That is when Joseph famously proclaimed to “fight no more forever.” The Gazette was well established when the Gunfight at the OK Corral took place and later when Geronimo surrendered. Uly...
This year’s good news is Washington apple production is the second best ever. The better news is shipments to Asian markets are returning to normal. Let me explain. In 2014, our state had its best apple crop in history, but prospects to deliver cases of apples across the ocean were dampened by a labor dispute at West Coast seaports. That dispute led to a prolonged slowdown (and eventual shutdown) in loading ships carrying thousands of agriculture and manufactured products. According to a report issued jointly by the National Association of M...
Just imagine that some generous benefactor gave you $5 million with the caveat that it had to be used to benefit the world we live in. How would you spend it? My first reaction would be world wide health care. There are research projects for aids, cancer and other crippling diseases that are hamstrung by lack of funds. Organizations such as Doctors Without Borders do wonderful work. I have run across some of these people in my travels and can assure you that they are dedicated to providing health care in parts of the world that don’t have w...
In the course of a couple of tweets, Donald Trump may have ended the image of the GOP as the party of corporate America. After striking a Carrier deal to preserve about 800 jobs, the president-elect slapped the Indiana company Rexnord on Twitter for "rather viciously firing" its workers and then went after Boeing for ripping off the public on a $3 billion Air Force One deal. Just like that, and in less than 280 characters, Trump had established more distance from big business than the GOP had in a generation. In his frenetic way, he is forcing...
Most people think of the mainstream media as the scum of the earth -- and most of us are -- but we do at least try to check out information before we go with a story. What a waste of time! Nobody trusts us anyway. Apparently, people prefer reports that don't bother with trivialities like facts. They choose to believe "fake news," so called because the stuff is not real. It's the figment of someone's imagination -- someone who is a looney-tune or has a profit motive or political agenda. In the warp-speed world of the internet, thousands upon... Full story
Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking for the truth about Santa Claus because her friends were telling her he did not exist. The famous response written by Francis Pharcellus Church was printed as an editorial Sept. 21, 1897. VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or chi...
Christmas is a difficult time for anyone grieving for lost loved ones. It is especially painful for America’s military families whose son, daughter, spouse or parent was killed while serving in uniform. Normally, the fallen are remembered on Memorial Day, but thanks to a Maine family and more than 800,000 donors and volunteers, more than a million wreaths will be laid on the tombstones of our fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen on Dec. 17. The panoramic view of Arlington National Cemetery’s rolling hills with its white grave markers per... Full story
It looks like the weather will bring the protests in North Dakota to a halt – at least until spring. I have been trying unsuccessfully to make some sense out of the controversy, but I haven’t heard anything that says the pipeline is not a good idea. The United States uses more oil than any other country in the world. To fill our requirements, we have had to import crude from countries that are not always friendly. Some are downright hostile. Before we began development of the North Dakota oil fields, we were dependent on foreign sources for...
