business news, local news

Hang on to your highway patience

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Well, kids, we have entered that phase of construction along US Highway 380 between Princeton and McKinney that is going to test everyone’s patience.

I am going to remind myself — and others who read this blog — that the time has come to draw heavily on our cache of patience. We also must remind ourselves constantly that this work has an end. It will be done eventually. When it’s finished, I suspect this well-traveled thoroughfare will be significantly more pleasant to motor along than it has been for some years.

The Texas Department of Transportation has launched an ambitious right-of-way improvement project that will take years to complete. It will widen US 380 from four lanes to six. As I drive west of Princeton along the highway, I notice several areas where concrete has been been poured and has dried. It’s intermittent. That means the sections that are done cannot be used.

No biggie, man.

The work along 380 is just part of TxDOT’s plans for the highway. Soon (at least I hope it’s soon), the agency will begin work on freeway loops around several cities along the highway. Princeton is one of them.

I have one fear to give me worry while the work trudges on. It’s the fear that we could lose some businesses along the right-of-way. I noticed, for example, that two burger joints have shuttered, a Dairy Queen along the south side of the highway and a Wendy’s along the north side.

What do we do about any of this? Hah! Not much can be done. I am looking for alternative routes to travel. I’d feel OK about that except if I’m looking for Plan B routes, so are thousands of other North Texans. The message, then, for all of us is as clear as it can get.

Just be patient.

military news

Where is concern for our troops … Donald?

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A sailor jumps off the USS Abraham Lincoln, floats at sea for an hour before he’s rescued.

The Lincoln is at sea for a record-breaking 240 days and the galley is running out of food to feed the 5,000 crew members aboard the massive warship.

Morale is being reported at the lowest ebb possible.

What does the commander in chief have to say about it? He said another carrier, the USS George Washington is en route to replace the Abraham Lincoln and then made some comment that the crew hadn’t spent “nearly enough” time at sea.

Donald Trump keeps feigning support for the men and women who serve in the world’s mightiest and most lethal fighting force in world history. His actions, his statements and his posture betray all of that concern.

Remember that this is the individual who once referred to those who wear the uniform as “suckers and losers.” I cannot let this go.

This moron in chief has no business commanding this fighting force. It is on a mission that no one has defined. There is no plan to end this war with Iran that Trump has boasted has already been won; if the war has been won, as Trump has bragged, then what in the hell are we still doing out there?

I once took part briefly in an unwinnable war. We weren’t all fighting for God and country in Vietnam. Many of us sought mainly to survive, to return home to our loved ones and start building our lives. Trump only worsens the lives of our warriors by blathering the cruelty that spews from his overfed mouth.

The men and women who are fighting a war with no end in sight need the complete respect from the individual who has sent them into battle. Donald Trump needs to keep his trap shut.

religious news

Islam is not our enemy

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Very soon, Americans are going to commemorate a date that is every bit as infamous as the date that saw the United States plunge into World War II … the day Japan’s naval and air forces attacked our Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Just mention “9/11,” and the whole world knows what you mean. We went to war on that day because terrorists flew commercial jets into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and into a Pennsylvania field when passengers aboard a fourth jetliner sought to wrest control of the doomed plane from hijackers.

President Bush, barely nine months into his job on Sept. 11, 2001, spoke eloquently in an effort to rally the nation behind the fight against international terror. One of the major takeaways from the president’s speech that evening was that “we are not at war with Islam.” The nation was taking aim at the terrorists who masquerade as Muslims.

I mention this today because we are hearing throughout North Texas language that suggests that not all Americans heard the message that President Bush sought to convey. Islam, Bush told us, is a religion of peace.

President Obama also reminded us that the leader of the terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 — Osama bin Laden — was “not a Muslim,” but that he was a terrorist who killed thousands of Muslims during his reign of terror, before U.S. commandos brought justice to the head of al-Qaeda.

And yet, we hear rumblings in North Texas about efforts to ban Sharia law, a tenet practiced by some Muslims. I hear rumblings in small communities such as Sachse. In McKinney, the city council might face a recall effort by residents angry over some council members’ support of a proposed mosque in that city.

I must be clear on this. A mosque is a house of worship where Muslims are guaranteed their right to pray as they see fit. It’s in the Constitution’s First Amendment. As for Sharia law, the Constitution also prohibits the any religion in our public schools. This all strikes me as a cause in search of a villain.

As Americans prepare to commemorate 9/11, a date that will — as Dec. 7 has done — be remembered as a “date which will live in infamy,” may we also remember that our enemies are not Muslims. They are those who have perverted a great religion for a dastardly political cause.

national news

Keystone Kops makes a return

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Are you as confused as I am about what is being reported about securing the president of the United States? Please say “yes,” because I can’t make sense of any of it.

It’s being reported that Donald Trump was squirreled away in a catering vehicle because of a “credible threat” to his security. Now comes word that the White House is downplaying the threat, which occurred while Trump was trying last month to leave Turkey after attending a NATO summit.

There’s more to this tale of fantasy. Trump was supposed to fly out of Turkey aboard the Boeing 747 jet designated as Air Force One whenever it transports the president of the United States. That didn’t happen. Trump took another plane out of Turkey. Except we know are told the air traffic controllers never used the Air Force One terminology to ID the jet that carried the POTUS. I understand that would constitute a major no-no in aviation standard operating procedure.

I’m trying to keep all this straight. I fear it’s a losing fight.

Now I understand that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett and other key Cabinet officials were aboard the targeted 747. Good grief, man! So are we to believe that the White House deemed Rubio, Bessett et al to be expendable? As I’ve noted long ago, I never take anything coming from the White House under the Donald Trump era at its word.

The jokesters are going to have a field day with this item. If only the White House had a communications department that could set the record straight.

military news

Self goes gung-ho on Iran

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Keith Self spoke recently to the Farmersville Rotary Club, proclaiming he didn’t have a formal program from which he would speak on this or that.

But the Republican member of Congress who represents Collin County had a good bit to say about a few of the hot topics of the day. The Iran war was one of them and, to be honest, he disappoints me terribly as I learn about his views on Donald Trump declaring war on Iran and then proceeding to seek to bomb it into oblivion. During his talk to the Farmersville Rotary Club, Self could have taken a moment to discuss a still-undetermined exit strategy for ending the Iran war. He could have discussed whether we should pay to rebuild the civilian infrastructure our missiles and bombs have destroyed. He might have talked about how to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was wide open until we started bombing Iran; the strait is where a huge bulk of Iranian oil goes to fuel industries around the world.

Oh, no. He didn’t go there. Instead, he invoked the memory of the late Sen. George Aikin, a Vermont Republican, who said in the 1960s that we could end the Vietnam War by “declaring victory and then just go home.”

Self, a native of Amarillo, graduated from West Point and then became a U.S. Army Ranger. He saw plenty of combat during his 25 years in uniform. I had hope his combat experience would make him a bit more circumspect about sending young Americans into harm’s way to fight a nation of some 90 million residents and with a substantial army and air force.

Instead, Self, came off a bit cavalier about going to war. He was asked about the Iran war in Farmersville. He said Trump should “call for a pause in the action, work real hard” to ensure the GOP retains control of Congress after the midterm election, after which “he could go back in and finish the job.”

That was it, kids. I would call that a “gung-ho” response. If only Rep. Self would react to what many of us out here in the middle of America know … which is that there is little appetite for war against Iran, especially a war launched by a feckless POTUS who has yet to tell us precisely what the hell we’re doing fighting a war he said he never would impose.

 

national news, political news

This POTUS takes job lightly

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When the president of the United States spends hours each night sending out social media digs at political foes, or concentrates his anger at media reporters, or takes time to lament who’s to blame for a reflecting pool fiasco, or can’t complete construction of a billion-dollar ballroom where the East Wing once stood …

Well, you have a POTUS who cannot possibly be up to the job to which he was elected to do.

You have in Donald Trump an overfed showman who has started a war with Iran, backed an aggressor in the Kremlin for launching an illegal and immoral war against Ukraine and has alienated just about every valuable ally this nation has worked for decades to count on as a friend.

President Barack Obama recently said that a president who is serious about his job has — at minimum — perhaps 10 issues on his plate that require his undivided attention. And they have nothing to do with beautifying the White House.

It should be abundantly clear that Donald Trump was far more interested in becoming the POTUS than actually being that person. To be the commander in chief, the head of government and head of state requires laser-like focus. Trump exhibits none of that trait as he stumbles, bumbles and blathers his way through each day he is in office.

He continues to bitch about losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden … and cannot bring himself to say a single empathetic word about the former president’s struggle against cancer. He continues to lie about presiding over the “the greatest economy the world has ever seen” when in fact the USA is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

This individual has sought to destroy our democratic republic. He cheapens the presidency every single day he sits in the Oval Office. Donald Trump has no business holding the office to which he was elected twice. What in the world is wrong with this nation?

national news

Trump outdoes himself … once again!

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Donald Trump fielded a question over the weekend about news that President Biden’s cancer has spread from his prostate gland to his bones, apparently signaling a daunting turn for the 46th POTUS.

His answer was disgusting, but not the least bit surprising, given Trump’s lack of empathy for any human being on this Earth.

He called his predecessor a mean spirit, said he has trashed the reputations of his political adversaries. “So, no, I don’t feel sorry for him,” Trump said. Wow, man.

This is precisely why Donald Trump engenders such loathing among millions of Americans. And, yes, even from those who contend they support his ideas but dislike the man. All the POTUS had to say was simply something like this: “The president and I have profound differences, but I want to wish him well as he continues his struggle against cancer. I will say a prayer for Mrs. Biden and their children, Hunter and Ashley and their families.”

Even a milquetoast statement of empathy such as that could go a long way toward possibly redeeming Donald in the eyes of a nation that is growing so very weary of his continued insults.

This lack of compassion only proves what many of us have said all along, that Donald Trump carries none of what many of us think would be a normal sense decency.

This individual is wired in a way that bears no resemblance to anything you and I experience routinely as we go about a normal lifestyle.

I will pray for President Joe Biden, whose decency alone casts a gigantic shadow over the wreckage that Trump is bringing to the nation’s highest office.

Sports news

First things first: fire the GM

OK, here comes an admission: I know little about the sport that is the subject of this blog post … that is to say I don’t about the nuts and bolts of it.

Here’s what I do know. I know that the owner of the Dallas Cowboys thinks he’s an expert on the sport his team competes in, except that he doesn’t.

The Cowboys opened their training camp in Oxnard, Calif. and have begun preparing for the 2026-2027 NFL season. Some pundits, who think they know enough about the sport of pro football, think this “might be the year ” for the Cowboys to break their three-decade drought since their latest Super Bowl victory.

I just have one piece of advice for the owner of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones. He needs a new general manager.

Oh, wait! I damn near forgot! Jones is the GM. He’s the owner and the top executive.

I am aware of one pro football owner who’s doubled as GM and been successful at it. Al Davis — the owner and GM of the Oakland Raiders — comes to mind. Davis ran the show in Oakland just as Jones does in Texas; I can’t refer to them routinely as the Dallas Cowboys because they quit playing tackle football in Dallas since they left the Cotton Bowl in the 1970s.

Well, anyway …

If Jones really thinks he knows how to draft players, negotiate contracts with his star players, hire head coaches and stay out of their way while they coach the team, then I will eat my words.

I don’t think that will happen.

Jerry Jones is a brilliant man. He made a fortune in business. He then spent part of it to buy the Cowboys. I just figure that someone who is as smart as Jones is would know what he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know pro football the way a seasoned general manager knows the sport.

The owner of the team just should step aside, hire a seasoned general manager, then sit back, count your money and let the GM and the head coach take all the credit for whatever success they earn. And sure, the owner can share in it … just not hog all of it.

national news, political news

Never have seen hatred like this …

My interest in politics and public policy goes back a ways … to, oh, around 1968. I had just graduated high school the previous year and was floundering in college.

Military duty awaited me, along with the Vietnam War that was fueling much of the debate in this country. The war and the debate raged on after I donned the Army uniform in the summer of ’68; in fact, I was inducted on Aug. 21 of that year, which means I will commemorate my induction date in just a few days.

I had a preferred presidential candidate that year. It was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York. He was possibly on track to be nominated that summer as the Democratic candidate for president. Then in June 1968 it ended in a hail of gunfire in the Los Angeles hotel kitchen the night of the California Democratic primary that RFK won.

I went on to serve my country. I returned home in 1970. I got involved in the 1972 presidential election.

Where am I going with this? At no time, not a single time, did I witness the kind of bad blood flow among activists and politicians that we’re witnessing now in the Age of Donald Trump. We are witnessing the tearing apart of one of the essential threads of our political fabric. It’s the fabric that tells us that civility and decorum have their place … even as we debate with every ounce of mental and emotional strength in favor of policies and politicians we admire.

These days we hear about politicians fearing for their lives, that their political foes could react violently. And I won’t be coy about this aspect of the today’s climate: Pols and activists on the right — especially the MAGA right — are the most guilty of fomenting this fear. To be fair, the violence has its roots across the spectrum. I will cite the gruesome murder of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk as a key example of how dangerous this rhetoric has become for everyone in the public eye.

Can we return to the good old days of fierce debate among friends in high places? I damn sure hope so.

legal news

This isn’t compromise … it’s betrayal

In all the years I have been watching and covering politics — as a daily print journalist — I have seen my share of men and women make compromises to seek a greater good.

The decision by key Republican U.S. senators to back Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation in the Senate, however, falls into a darker category. It is a betrayal of common decency, not to mention of the oath they all took to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution.

Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina both had been critical of recent decisions by Donald J. Trump. They made noise about opposing Blanche’s confirmation. It turned out that’s what it was: just a lot of noise.

The same could be said of Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a longtime foe of Trump. He, too, cast his vote to confirm Blanche, even though the new AG demonstrated repeatedly during his confirmation hearing that he had no intention of bucking the POTUS were he to issue an order that would violate the Constitution. Blanche, of course, served as Trump’s defense lawyer during his trials for various felonies of which he was convicted.

Accordingly, I am going to say a good word about Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,, who were the only GOP senators to stand on principle, rather than on blind fealty to a lame-duck president who has shown zero inclination to do anything for the good of the entire nation he was elected to lead.

Cornyn and Tillis’s plunge into the cavern is particularly odious. They had demanded a written commitment from Blanche that he would disallow the spending of $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to the traitorous felons convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection against the government after the 2020 election that Trump lost to President Biden. They got a written promise from Blanche, but there remains a distinct possibility that he and/or Trump could renege on that promise. There is zero legal binding to it.

Cornyn and Tillis both went with the idiot in chief rather than sending a clear message that they stood on a matter of principle.

Blanche’s confirmation by a 50-49 partisan vote, indeed, was a dark day for the rule of law. The GOP will have to defend the indefensible before a voting public that has lost its patience with a once-great political party.

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