military news

Self goes gung-ho on Iran

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

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!

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.

national news

Trump hangs on by a thread

Donald J. Trump keeps bragging about how great he is as a man and as a politician, about he won two of three presidential elections in a landslide.

Hmm. I gave that some thought, so I looked up a few numbers to try to put this man’s time in high office in its proper perspective. Let’s take a brief look at them, OK?

Trump ran in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. He finished that election with nearly 3 million fewer votes than Clinton, but won the Electoral College and, thus, became president.

He ran for re-election in 2020 and got whipped by Joe Biden, who tallied about 7 million more votes than Trump, who then protested Biden’s victory by launching the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump ran again in 2024 and beat Kamala Harris by about 2 million votes, and won the Electoral College, too.

I totaled up Trump’s popular votes in all three elections and came up with 212 million votes compared to 214 million votes tallied by Clinton, Biden and Harris combined.

Here’s my point.

Donald Trump can declare until his orange face turns blue, but the numbers don’t lie, unlike the liar in chief. Donald Trump did win all those “battleground states” in 2024 and I will give him credit for that. He fought hard to persuade voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia to support him. But across the vast nation, he still came up short of anything approaching the “landslide” he keeps saying he won.

Furthermore, in all three of those national elections on which Trump’s name was on the ballot, he fell short of scoring a majority. He finished with about 45% in 2016, 47% on 2020 and 49% in 2024.

A landslide usually describes a 10-point victory or greater. Trump has been hanging on by a single thread since the moment he took the oath of office in January 2017.

I believe he is going to see what a landslide actually looks like in about 88 days.

local news

Community ralllies to save a huge event

A marvelous event has just taken place in a community that sits about seven miles east of my house in Princeton along U.S. Highway 380.

Citizens rose rallied to bring back a long-standing event that has become an attraction of sorts in North Texas. Old Time Saturday had been put on the far back shelf in Farmersville when organizers decided they could no longer do all the work needed to keep it going.

The Farmersville community said, in unison, “Not so fast.” So, the Chamber of Commerce, the school district, the Farmersville Rotary Club, the City of Farmersville, Farmersville Centennial, Farmersville Parks and Rec., and the Farmersville Community Corp., cobbled together a partnership to revive Old Time Saturday.

So, an event thought to be possibly a thing of the past has become very much an event for the present — and hopefully for the future. Old Time Saturday will occur on Oct. 3. Visitors will be able to shop, consume lots of good food, watch a parade through downtown Farmersville, enjoy entertainment and all told just a hell of a good time.

I’ve covered a number of these community events during my many years in local journalism. This is a rare event to see a community rally the way Farmersville has done to preserve a long-standing event that pumps a lot of money into the region. Old Time Saturday will get a chance to pour even more funds into Farmersville.

Too often I have watched communities throw up their hands when organizers grow weary and then announce the event for which they toiled was going away. The Farmersville Centennial group had taken the lead on organizing Old Time Saturday for many years. I found out that many of the volunteers upon whom Farmersville Centennial depended on for help had other things to do. Planning and execution of the event fell on just a handful of folks. They, too, grew tired.

The collection of agencies, though, demonstrates to me that Farmersville, a rapidly growing community in eastern Collin County, wasn’t going to let an event that draws thousands of visitors to Farmersville every year was not going to throw dirt on the event and bury it forever.

Old Time Saturday is back. Farmersville has done itself proud.

political news, State news

How will Donald react to the drubbing?

Hey, it’s time to ask what I believe is a pertinent question regarding the midterm congressional election that is now just around the corner.

How is Donald Trump going to react if his Republican Party suffers the drubbing it is expected to receive from voters across the land who are tired of going to war, weary of the inflation caused by tariffs and sickened by the POTUS’s power grab?

My hunch? He will hate it all with a purple passion and will seek to find conspiracies around every corner and in every nook and cranny of the electoral system.

We now can presume that Trump cannot stomach the thought that he is a loser. Except that he is. He keeps challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. He’s lost more than 60 court challenges. Loser!

What will happen if Republicans lose in states where they haven’t lost since The Flood? Will the party accept the results of free, fair and legal results if Democrats end up with more votes than the GOP? Bwahahahahaha!

Republicans will be fueled by the POTUS’s anger. They’ll gobble up the lie about elections being stolen.

I’m trying to fathom what might occur in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico holds an estimated 5-point lead over Republican Ken Paxton. Suppose Talarico’s lead is real and suppose as well that it translates into a victory in November. Trump will become apoplectic! He’ll go crazier than he already has become … especially if it’s a narrow Talarico win.

I am going to hope for the best. Which is that Trump realizes finally — finally! — that his battle to cling to power is lost forever. And that he’ll accept the thrashing he is expected to get and settle into the lame-duck status that is his alone.

You can stop laughing now.

religious news

Sharia Law targeted by Congress

Did you know — and this tidbit caught me by surprise when I heard it today — that there’s a committee in Congress dedicated to ensuring that Sharia Law has no place in American society?

What is Sharia Law? It’s a religious tenet practiced by Muslims around the world.

As I understand it, Sharia Law carries a good bit of weight among devout Muslims. If you violate any of its rules, you can be punished … severely! I understand that Sharia Law allows “honor killings,” which would enable someone to kill a member of his or her family if that person dishonors the family name.

Allow me now to back up just a bit. Let’s visit for a moment the religious freedom clause of the Constitution’s First Amendment. It says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … “

I now shall sigh just a bit and ask out loud whether any effort to ban Sharia Law runs counter to the Constitution’s guarantee of the freedom to worship how one pleases. It seems like it does.

Moreover, the Constitution also prohibits clearly the practicing of religion in our public schools. Correct? Again, I believe that’s the case.

I have to wonder, then, what in the world is so vital that we have a House committee working on ways to prevent Muslims in this country from believing in Sharia Law. We have criminal laws that punish people for killing other people. If one commits an “honor killing,” then one can be arrested, tried and if convicted can be put to death. It would appear clear to me that losing one’s life at the hands of the state could deter them from committing such a crime as an “honor killing” of a loved one.

I’ve been quick to defend the Constitution. I believe it is strong enough to withstand damn near any assault on its authority. A president cannot suspend constitutional restrictions on his power just because he desires it. Nor can individuals take another human being’s life without facing the wrath of the state.

Which makes me wonder: What the hell is a congressional committee going to do to circumvent the Constitution?

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience