national news

Turning away from debate

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All eyes are turning — or at least many of them are doing so — toward the Atlanta stage where President Biden and Donald J. Trump are going to joust in that much-anticipated first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.

This blog post is going to point itself elsewhere for the time being.

We have a lot of issues to settle in this angry world of ours.

How do we negotiate a settlement between Russia and Ukraine? How do we do the same in Gaza where Israel has gone to war with Hamas? How do we make sure Iran doesn’t acquire nuclear weapon capability? How do we secure our border? How do we control inflationary pressure on those things we purchase at the store? How can we improve public education?

Biden and Trump aren’t likely to come close to providing any solutions. We instead are going to focus on the show biz aspect of the joint appearance.

I am going to concentrate my energy on seeking solutions to the critical problems facing this nation. I am sure my phone will ring tonight after the debate. My friends and family will ask who I thought “won.” I won’t be callous and say, “I don’t know and I don’t care.,”

I suppose all of this is my way of lowering expectations for what happens this evening. Two men who are thought pretty universally to be profoundly unable to face the problems that trouble us won’t provide any answers,

It’s all for show, man. Got it? Good.

Uncategorized

Thank you, firefighters

Perhaps you can join me in making this admission: We don’t offer our thanks often enough to the men and women who serve in our fire service.

What brings this up? Well, today I went on a photo assignment for the Princeton Herald. My boss asked me to take some pictures of Princeton firefighters reading to children at the Lois Nelson Public Library. It was scheduled for mid-morning. Just a few minutes before the firefighters were to begin reading to the kids, the library filled up rapidly with children and their parents.

I mean it was chock full of kids. They were sitting in a reading room. I guess there might have been about 150 Princeton-area kids and their parents gathered to learn about fire trucks, which a young fireman, Joe Vega, explained as he read the text.

To be sure, many of the kids were too young to even know what they were hearing. That is not the point. The men and women who serve in our fire service are ambassadors for the city they represent. They are present to do things such as what I watched today. They spoke to the kids who wanted to know about what they do … and to the parents whose taxes pay for the firefighting infrastructure that is so valuable an asset that protects the community.

I have a bit of personal experience with the professionalism these individuals display. I had a medical emergency in my home in January 2023. I called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher of my need for someone to arrive immediately. They sent a fire crew to my home and it was there within, oh, two minutes of the call. The men who burst into my home to tend to my wife could not possibly have been more courteous … even as they went to work immediately tending to Kathy Anne’s emergency.

That’s only one part of the job they do. They rush into burning buildings. They respond to motor vehicle crashes. And they read to children, telling them about what they do to protect our community.

I feel the need to thank them publicly for all they do to keep us safe.

medical news

Pro-birth … not pro-life

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I am on the verge of abandoning the long-held term used to identify those who oppose a woman’s reproductive rights.

They call themselves “pro-life.” The reality is that they instead are “pro-birth,”

Why the change? It stems from the draconian measures enacted to restrict abortion in many states, including Texas. Here, legislators approved a ban on any abortion when a woman has been pregnant for six weeks or longer.

It makes no exception for the health of the unborn babies. Consider what happened to a Dallas woman who had to go out of state to obtain an abortion because one of the twins she was carrying had no chance of survival. She obtained the abortion.

Legislators are requiring women to give birth to children even when that act would jeopardize the health of the child and possibly destroy a woman’s ability to give birth in the future.

That is not a pro-life position. It promotes birth …. and it is a lie!

Should the 2024 election turn on this issue? Damn straight it should!

The Republican nominee in waiting has bragged about how he “single-handedly” deprived women of their right to govern their own bodies. The Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, cannot let his opponent get away with that idiotic boast.

national news, political news

Waiting anxiously for debate

For a long time I have been cautious about referring to events when two or more politicians stand on a stage as “debates.”

They aren’t, really. they have allowed the candidates to pontificate and excoriate their foes. But they do occasionally bring moments of excitement. They even have helped turn elections in favor of candidates.

Do you remember the time in 1976 when President Ford said Eastern Europe was “not dominated” by the Soviet Union? Of course it was! He lost the election that year. Or when Ronald Reagan asked us in 1980 whether we were “better off than you were four years ago.” We weren’t. Reagan won in a landslide.

The format for the Thursday appearance with President Joe Biden and Donald J. Trump will be without a studio audience and will have a sound cutoff when the candidates exceed the time limit or when they tell a lie knowingly.

I am one American patriot who will wait anxiously to see how Trump handles the mike sound issue. He and his MAGA cult followers already are saying the debates is rigged. Who knew?

Something tells me we might see more than our share of meltdowns as Trump seeks to lie his way past the silent mikes. Will it influence the end of this miserable campaign? I damn sure hope so.

local news

Time for a rant!

Rarely do I use this blog to rant and rail about personal matters … but today I am going to make a brief exception.

I see a lot of “No Soliciting” signs on people’s front yards. I have nothing to sell, so I have no good reason to knock on someone’s door.

There is a “No Soliciting” sign in the flower bed in front of my front door. It’s there just as plain as the schnoz on my puss.

What’s the rant? You know where I am going with this. It is to bellow angrily at salespeople who (a) ignore the sign, (b) don’t see it or (c) ring my doorbell just to piss me off.

I won’t think the worst of folks, so I’ll rule out the last “reason.”

However, I don’t put those signs out because I like the way they look among the front-yard flora. I put them out there because I do not want salespeople seeking to sell me something this old grouch doesn’t need or want. The kid today sought to sell me a pest-control product he said would get rid of spiders. “I’ve talked to your neighbors and they told me they have spiders,” he said.

OK. My rant is over. Now I’ll return to more worldly items on which to, oh I don’t know … maybe offer a complaint.

local news

Sanity grips city council

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How about that? Sanity reared its welcome head in the Texas Panhandle as Amarillo rejected a goofy notion of turning the city into a “sanctuary for the unborn.”

The Amarillo City Council voted against a measure that had many Texans — such as me — worried about how the city would enforce such a nutty notion.

The plan called for the city to prohibit anyone from using public roads and streets to obtain an abortion. It empowered residents to rat on their neighbors and friends who need to end a pregnancy but were denied that right because Texas has all but made the process illegal.

According to the Austin American-Statesman: Councilmember Tom Scherlen expressed concerns over the impact of the proposed anti-abortion ordinance on local companies. He said it may impact those that provide travel for abortion in their insurance plans and could impede economic development as future businesses may avoid relocating to the area if the ordinance was in effect.

Money does talk. In this case it spoke loudly enough to prevent a Texas city from falling victim to governmental idiocy.

local news

City searches for ID

A friend and I were chatting the other day and the subject of “community identity” came up.

I had mentioned a story I was working on dealing with efforts to revive an abandoned schoolhouse in Farmersville where Black students received their education for the first eight years of school. My friend, who grew up in Dallas and who now lives in Fort Worth, said she was delighted to know that Farmersville is building on its identity.

“They have a lovely town square there,” she noted. Then came a subject I don’t recall discussing with her. “Princeton, on other hand, doesn’t have an identity,” she said.

Bingo! She wins the prize for intuitiveness!

I have raised that point in this blog almost since my wife and I moved here in February 2019. Princeton is in desperate need of a community identity, perhaps an annual event that spells out precisely what this rapidly growing city is all about.

Princeton is in the midst of a population explosion. The 2010 Census grew from 6,807 residents to 17,027 in 2020. Since then, the population stands at an estimated 28,000 people. The city’s population has quadrupled since 2010 … and more are on the way.

The city does lack what I believe is a municipal signature spelled out in a downtown core business district. There is no such place in Princeton. I have said for far longer than I can remember that every successful city has one common denominator:  a thriving downtown district.

Princeton doesn’t even have a “Welcome” sign on either end of US 380. Farmersville calls itself a “Texas Treasure,” to cite just one example of how a city can ID itself to those coming to visit or those who are just passing through,

None of this is to say that Princeton lacks a “reputation.” It has one of those … a reputation as a city with horrendous rush-hour traffic in the morning and evening. A word to the wise: Do not seek to travel on US 380 if you’re in a hurry between the hours of 8-9 a.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m. That’s another story for another day.

Today’s tale will continue to argue for a community identity for a city I have grown to appreciate. I like living here. I would love living here once Princeton continues to grow and mature.

local news

Patience runs out

Every time I drive by the unfinished apartment complex construction site on US 380 here in little ol’ Princeton, Texas, the more annoyed I get.

I get annoyed because of what I know has not happened there and I get even more chapped over what I believe is going to be the outcome in this dispute.

The site is getting seedier by the day. Weeds are overtaking the giant dirt piles that construction crews left behind when they walked off the job more than a year ago. The weedier it gets, the seedier it becomes and the more difficult it is going to get for anyone to make the site remotely presentable.

I am not going to belabor this point forever and a day. I just feel compelled to express my frustration and annoyance at what I see every damn day I drive by the site. I see an eyesore. It’s a big one and it is a blight on the city my late wife and I chose to call home when we moved here a little more than five years ago.

I learned not long ago that the Princeton City Council granted the zone change in 2017 which cleared the way for construction of the 360-unit complex of “luxury” apartments. Do not misunderstand me … as I do not object to apartment complexes per se. I do object to local government being unable or unwilling to intervene to get this dispute — whatever it entails — resolved between the parties.

In 2017, Princeton had a different city management team, a different mayor and city council. The city has hired some new faces to run City Hall and the council has a new mayor and new council members.

I fear, though, that the battered hulk of a construction site is beyond repair at this point. It has taken too much pummeling from Mother Nature to be saved.

national news

Stop at nothing? Oh … really?

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The gallery of politicians who have become the masters of the obvious has grown by one … a member of the U.S. House Republican caucus, Nancy Mace.

She told the Fox Propaganda Channel that the “left will stop at nothing to ensure” President Biden’s re-election.

My jaw damn near hit the deck as I thought: No … sh**!

You see, the MAGA right wing cult is gearing up to do precisely the same thing as they tell lie after lie to ensure that Donald J. Trump wins the election.

These right-wing pols can cease with the declarations about the mean ol’ woke politicians on the left.

political news

Stakes are um … huge!

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One week out and I am trying to recall the last time I looked forward to a presidential debate with such trepidation.

I cannot remember when that occurred. Maybe it never did.

President Joe Biden and Donald J. Trump will go toe-to-toe next week in the first of two planned joint appearances.

Biden and Trump are running neck-and-neck. Why is that? That’s beyond me. However, the polling suggests a photo finish this election cycle.

Here is my hope for a debate outcome.

My hope is that President Biden brings his “A” game. That he remains cool, calm and collected. That he reminds viewers of what lies ahead if voters are dumb enough to send the former numbskull in chief back to the Oval Office. That he reminds us that we cannot possibly elect convicted felon to the nation’s most glorious public office. That he tells us of the existential threat to our democracy if Trump is able to give Russian goon Vladimir Putin a free hand in his immoral invasion of Ukraine.

And that he just lets Trump zoom into orbit with his nonsensical rants about The Big Lie and how much “love” was shown during the violent assault on our Capitol on Jan. 6.

This debate could be the game changer that many of us hope occurs.

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