local news

Princeton takes key step toward maturity

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Princeton has made a significant turn to becoming a grownup city in North Texas, and its new city charter, formed in a November 2022 election, illustrates a key point I want to make with this brief blog post.

It is becoming a hybrid community of sorts, with part of its expanded City Council representing the entire city with the rest of the council representing those who live within certain voting precincts.

The charter states: Seats 1, 2, and 3 shall be elected by the qualified voters of the City at large. Seats 4, 5, 6, and 7 shall be elected by the qualified voters residing in assigned single-member districts, which shall be implemented for the election of Council Members for those seats held in 2030, but shall be elected by the qualified voters of the City at-large until districts have been implemented.

With that pronouncement, Princeton joins other growing communities in recognizing the desire — and the need — recognize the issues raised by certain neighborhoods.

To be sure, there’s a bit of risk involved with this kind of governing framework. One of them involves the potential for turf battles. City council members might argue that their community’s project is more needed than those sought for another project on the other side of the city. This is where at-large members can step in and cool whatever rancor might develop.

The mayor, of course, will be elected at-large, so we could get a feel for the kind of leadership Eugene Escobar Jr., is able to muster as he leads an expanded governing council. The charter expands the council from five members to seven.

All in all, though, I am delighted to see the city take this important step. My wife and I came to Princeton after living 23 years in Amarillo, a city of 200,000 residents. Amarillo is governed by five council members who all represent the city at-large. We argued at the newspaper where I worked that the a-large system worked for Amarillo. I didn’t agree with that editorial policy, so I spoke out against it when I left the paper in August 2012.

Princeton is taking an important step toward a modern recognition of the huge diversity that exists among its population, which now is estimated to be well north of 40,000 residents.

Welcome to the new world, Princeton City Hall. I wish you all the success you can muster.

Donald Trump, national news

Trump angry at GOP rebellion? Awww, too bad

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Word out of DC is that the hothead in chief, Donald Trump, is angry over Republican resistance to his choice to be the next attorney general.

Gosh, what could be getting under their skin? It could be that Todd Blanche can’t stop acting like Trump’s personal lawyer, which he was for several years. It might be Blanche’s resistance to submit in writing a pledge to protect the reputations of the victims of the late Jeffrey Epstein, who brutalized these women. Maybe it’s a collection of “all of the above” factors that make Blanche totally unfit to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

At least two GOP senators, lame ducks John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, say they might vote “no” on Blanche’s AG nomination. Cornyn lost his GOP runoff race and Tillis chose not to seek re-election. They’re both free of Trump’s threats. We also have Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who’s been a thorn in Trump’s s ample backside for years.

I am pleased to see the GOP Senate caucus grow a set of — oh, you know — and start to resist Trump on matters that count. Selecting an AG is a big deal. Blanche shouldn’t get the nod to lead the Department of Justice. Hope is beginning to stir.

medical news

Fauci is a hero, not a zero

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How in the name of all that is sane does a man go from receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom to being treated as a run-of-the-mill hoodlum during a Senate committee hearing?

It’s not the individual, but rather it’s the change in the political climate that produces senators who have no sense of honor, decency or decorum.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man who likely saved the lives of millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, was raked over the coals by senators intent on slapping handcuffs on him and tossing him into the slammer. Why? Because the dipshit in chief, Donald Trump, wants them to do it.

Fauci once was honored by another Republican president, George H.W. Bush, with a Medal of Freedom. President Bush cited Fauci’s work as the world’s premier epidemiologist and his work to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. It was that record that Donald Trump brought him on board to lead the right against COVID, except then Fauci began contradicting the statements made by the current POTUS.

So, Trump turned him into a pariah. Now we have Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who this week sought to vilify Dr. Fauci for alleged misstatements he made. He called Fauci a liar. Dr. Fauci pushed back, citing his constitutional right to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid saying something that his accusers could use against him. He said Paul doesn’t know what he’s talking about and declared that “if anyone is lying, senator, it is you!”

I am going to stand with Dr. Anthony Fauci in this dispute. The man’s expertise is beyond dispute. It cannot possibly be challenged, especially by two-bit tinhorns masquerading as know-it-alls.

national news, political news

Trump earns title of ‘loser’

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One of Donald J. Trump’s favorite epithets appears to be “loser,” which he bestows on anyone he deems to be, um, well … not worthy of any description other than that one.

I want to hang the label round the flabby neck of the current POTUS, for he has assumed the title of loser in chief.

He keeps harping on an election he lost to Joe Biden. He has filed 60-some lawsuits and lost every one of them in various courts of law. Trump continues to tease us with the half-baked notion of running for a “fourth term” in the White House. Why four? He won the first race in 2016, claims to have won the second one in 2020, captured the presidency in 2024 and suggests the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t apply to him … so he might run again. The amendment says he’s only able to win twice. He did so. At the end of the current term, he’s out. For keeps. Forever!

He backs candidates who win their Republican primaries. So, he can claim victories there. The test of success has come in general elections when his MAGA morons face real opposition. Then they lose. I am suggesting strongly they’ll keep losing throughout the 2026 midterm election season.

What does make the 47th POTUS? It makes him a loser. Pure and simple.

His legislative agenda — such as it is — is dead. He’s heading for certain impeachment once Democrats reclaim control of the House of Reps. Then it will fall on the Senate to determine if he stays in office. If the GOP keeps control of the Senate, he might hold on until the end of his term. If not, well, then the fun really begins.

The loser in chief’s legacy will be cast in stone.

national news

Trump surrounds himself with dimwits

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It is as clear as the length of the day that Donald Trump’s premier broken campaign promise is the one that he pledged to surround himself with only the “best people,” the brightest minds and bona fide experts in every field known to humankind.

It also is clear as the deep blue sky that Trump has delivered us an executive team full of dimwits, nimrods, dipshits and kooks. I won’t name them all, as they likely would take too much time to finish these thoughts.

However, I want to explore briefly why Trump has scraped so low to fill his government executive team. It’s because the boss himself — that would be the POTUS — fits into all the pejorative descriptions I laid out in the previous paragraph. The last thing Donald Trump wants to do is have his team show him up by actually have an understanding of government, the Constitution and the limits the framers placed on the president.

In a strange, perverse sort of way I kind of get it if that is Trump’s desire. He doesn’t want to be shown up by underlings. We saw glimpses of that during his first term. He had a retired Marine Corps general, Jim Mattis, as secretary of defense. Mattis got the boot because he knew better than to just be a yes man to the president. The same can be said of John Kelly, another USMC general who took a spin at White House chief of staff. Mark Esper, another Defense boss, also got the boot in the. rear. I would even count Rex Tillerson, the first secretary of state to serve the Trump team.

The second term administration is filled with lackeys, yes men and women and assorted individuals who have no business serving in the highest levels of government.

We are getting the kind of government we should expect from a POTUS who brings to the highest office in the land zero background in public service.

local news

Princeton can follow neighbor’s lead

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Princeton and Farmersville are far from being twin municipalities. Princeton’s population has exploded to more than 40,000 residents, while Farmersville sits just a bit north of 5,000 … or thereabouts.

However, Farmersville just went through a city manager search that was done in the open, with as much transparency as the hiring firm could allow. Princeton’s search for a city manager is beginning and the larger community’s approach appears quite promising, in that it will be far more transparent than the sequence that produced the previous manager, who resigned after spending less that two years on the job

Then-mayor Brianna Chacon promised a transparent search. She failed to deliver on that pledge. Mike Mashburn jumped out of the tall grass and met the city council for the first time, and then was hired on the spot after meeting the council in executive session. Few people ever saw Mashburn coming. The city has hired a firm to conduct a national search this time around. It promises a see-through process.

The Farmersville model for hiring a city manager ought to be followed by their friends in Princeton. The Farmersville council narrowed the list of applicants down to three, brought them in to meet the public and to get acquainted with the council. Farmersville then settled on Angela Smith to replace former City Manager Ben White, who resigned after 15 years on the job.

The Farmersville search process included town hall meetings with the finalists and although the sessions weren’t exactly well attended, the council sought to expose the finalists to the community they all sought to govern. My hope for Princeton is that the council follow the lead set by Farmersville.

There’s another aspect to the Princeton manager search that deserves a hand-clap. The firm that produces the finalist who gets hired will perform a search do-over at no cost to the city if the manager leaves his or her job with a year of being hired.

That’s a pretty damn good deal. I look forward to seeing how this process plays out.

national news

GOP: out of ideas and running out of luck

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A political party that keeps harping on the past only can mean one thing about the present and the future, and it doesn’t bode well for the party I’m about to mention.

The Republican Party, led by Donald Trump, is flat out of ideas. It is running out of steam. Its luck is damn near spent.

What does this mean for its future? The immediate future is looking grim every passing day. The GOP small margin in the House of Representatives looks quite vulnerable these days, as Democrats appear poised to seize the majority from its “friends” on the other side of the aisle. The hill toward majority control in the Senate still looks more formidable than in the House, but there appear to be more avenues for Democratic success than for Republicans.

As for the Republicans’ leader, Donald Trump, well … all I can offer there is a word of caution that he is facing a near-certain impeachment in the House. It might come even during the first year of the pending Democratic victory at the ballot box. This individual has all but acted like he is committing impeachable acts on purpose, that he’s secretly hoping to be impeached. He violates the Constitution with impunity.

We can set aside the ridiculous nonsense he prattles on with regard to Presidents Biden and Obama; it’s the unconstitutional actions he takes regularly that ought to become the targets of those intending to file impeachment articles. The Iran war, the tariffs he imposes on all Americans are two actions that come to mind immediately.

Trump’s legacy is hardening each day. It is built on chaos, malfeasance and corruption. Thus, it is becoming virtually impossible for the POTUS’s political heirs to advance any sort of political agenda … even if they had one.

Uncategorized

Dubya looking better all the time

A dear friend and I today visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. It was my fourth visit; it was her first.

I want to stipulate something I believe is quite significant, given that I think this is the second time I’ve been to the Bush center during one of Donald Trump’s administration. It is that I cannot help but compare the incumbent POTUS to the 43rd president. With each comparison that comes to mind, Dubya comes off looking better than the previous time.

I didn’t vote for President Bush in either of his presidential elections; nor did I cast a ballot for him for governor in 1994. I will not apologize for opposing his election to the governor’s office or the presidency or his re-election to the White House.

But I’ll be deep-fried and damned if he doesn’t look like the Second Coming compared to Trump. The Bush library contains many images of President Bush huddled with children while touting his education reforms. Today I noticed a hand-written letter from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy thanking the president for his work to help children learn to read. There is quite an exhibit explaining Bush’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, notably through his federal initiative known as PEPFAR, which stands for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Indeed, I learned in 2004 while attending the international AIDS conference in Bangkok, that PEPFAR has pumped more money into AIDS research than all other worldwide government programs … combined!

The Bush center also puts this man’s humanity on display. We see it through his care for families whose lives were destroyed by the events of 9/11 and by his concern for poverty that continues to strike all families across the land.

Quite naturally, the Bush center says nothing about the mistakes made by going to war in Iraq in 2003 or the economic freefall that struck the nation at the end of his presidency.

I just look at George W. Bush’s life of public service and I am filled with the desire to thank him personally for all he sought to do to make this a better world. I compare that to what Donald Trump continues to do to destroy the very fabric of our great nation. I simply shake my head out of disgust and rage.

national news

Trump’s fixation with ‘things’ proves key point

Donald J. Trump’s fixation with adorning the West Wing with gold trimming, his destruction of the East Wing to build a fancy ballroom, his plans to build an Arc de Trump, his decision to plaster his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts proves what many of us have said all along about this fraudulent “champion of the people.”

He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about everyday Americans, nor does he care a one tiny bit about the value of public service.

I used this blog to warn folks about supporting a man who has never spent a waking moment of his adult life thinking about improving the nation. His entire focus, every damn moment, has been aimed at enriching himself. He doesn’t care about the MAGA morons who proclaim his virtue … such as it exists.

He talks about our “great military,” yet he refers to warriors as “suckers” and “losers.” He desecrates the memory of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam War hero who was tortured during his years as a prisoner of war.

The physical evidence of Trump’s real passion can be seen all over the nation’s capital. You hear it in his remarks. He cannot stop talking about that damn ballroom and he presumes to believe that Americans are in favor of spending more than $1 billion to build a place for the POTUS to entertain heads of state.

Well … we don’t want to spend more money on a fancy dining hall, Donald.

business news, local news

Princeton takes big step toward ‘adulthood’

Well now … it appears that Princeton, Texas, the city I’ve called home for the past seven years, is taking its next big step toward municipal adulthood.

I am a happy taxpaying resident of this growing community.

They’ve broken ground on the Princeton Town Center development, meaning that construction is going to start soon on a major grocery outlet that will serve as an anchor store for the massive complex on the corner of US 380 and Beauchamp Boulevard. They say the Kroger store will be open for business in July 2027, with much more to come.

I have waiting seemingly forever for this news to break. It did so this week with a story on the Princeton Herald. Joining Kroger in the anchor category will be Home Depot and Hobby Lobby. All the anchor stores will be completed around the same time, says the developer. Dozens of other outlets also are planned for the Town Center.

This is precisely the kind of development that Princeton has needed since it began its growth explosion about the time my wife and I moved here in February 2019. We have welcomed lots of new neighbors, but damn few new businesses to spend our money. The Princeton Town Center, comprising 63 acres, is going to give this city a bit of a municipal identity I have thought has been missing.

If you mention Princeton to someone from a neighboring community, the response usually entails some mention of the hideous traffic that moves ever-so-slowly through the community of about 45,000 residents. The Texas Department of Transportation is working to alleviate that matter, too. It is expanding US 380 and  eventually plans to build freeway loops through cities along the east-west right-of-way.

But I am delighted with news that Princeton Town Center will begin to take root on property that’s been awaiting this kind of activity. Princeton has been underserved for too long as it continues to add new residents. May the construction about to begin conclude at a reasonable time … in the near future!

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