Monthly Archives: March 2020

national news

Trump gets ready to trash Joe Biden

Here it comes … as most of us have expected for a long time.

The Donald J. Trump presidential re-election campaign is beginning to launch salvos against Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination. Is the aim intended to disparage policy pronouncements? Or take the former vice president and former senator to task for votes?

Heavens no! They’re going to denigrate Biden because he tends to make verbal gaffes, because he occasionally mangles facts.

They’re saying Biden isn’t “playing with a full deck.”

I’m sure you get where this is going. They’re going to question Biden’s mental acuity. His smarts. His cognitive ability.

Joe Biden is 78 years of age; Trump is 73. Trump is going to call himself the “young man” in this head-to-head matchup.

Still, the irony of Donald Trump and his team questioning anyone’s mental fitness for office is ironic in the extreme.

If you can stomach watching a Trump campaign rally, you might understand what I am saying. Trump flies off the Teleprompter script and launches one of those nonsensical, idiotic, moronic, incoherent riffs. He speaks in sentence fragments and, oh by the way, he lies his a** off virtually with every other sentence that flies out of his mouth.

If you want to shudder in disbelief — as I have done repeatedly since January 2017 — that this guy is the president of the United States of America, I encourage you to look it up. Believe me, it’s a hoot!

So, just think of this individual denigrating an opponent who occasionally commits a rhetorical flub. I would laugh, except that it isn’t the least bit funny.

I am proud to stand with someone of Joe Biden’s immense character and capacity for empathy. I also am delighted to oppose vehemently someone of Donald Trump’s absolute lack of both.

national news

It’s official: Will ignore Trump’s ‘briefings’

It’s official. I am going to ignore Donald Trump’s blathering incoherent rants whenever he calls these White House “briefings.”

If only he would do the right thing — which is impossible on its face, given the ego and pathological narcissism that afflicts this individual  — and stay away from these White House spectacles. He won’t. He cannot. He feels it’s his right to stand in front of the nation and walk us down some blind alley as it regards the coronavirus pandemic.

He is pushing for an Easter reopening of the nation. He just cannot stand the thought of the nation plunging into recession. He keeps laying blame on the media for allegedly hyping the pandemic as a way to cast aspersions on his re-election effort.

I happen to have as much right to turn the TV to another channel as he does to lie to our faces.

So … I will do exactly that.

Someone needs to let me know when he turns the microphone over to the real experts — the doctors, the national security team, the scientists. Until he does so, I’m out.

local news

Glimmer shines through the gloom

It’s not all gloomy out there. Yes, we’re struggling with a monumental health crisis, the likes of which none of us has experienced.

There is plenty to smile about in this time of trouble, turmoil and tempest.

My wife and I essentially are following all the rules laid down by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other local officials. We’re keeping our distance from the rest of the world; we venture out only to go to the grocery store; we wave at our neighbors from across way out yonder; we are Facetiming with our sons, our daughter-in-law and granddaughter. No touchy-feely, not even with them!

We also are taking time to complete some household tasks.

We finished one today: We cleaned and rearranged our garage. That’s one item crossed off my wife’s to-do list.

There will be more.

We also are spending some time reinforcing each other, talking about issues, associated problems that might occur. We also are worrying terribly about all of our loved ones.

We have siblings who live a good distance away and they all have underlying health issues that cause us concern. They’re all smart enough to do the right thing to ensure they remain coronavirus-free. We remain hopeful that we’ll all be intact when we come out on the other side.

So … we trudge on with smiles on our faces while looking for the glimmer peeking through the gloom.

local news, medical news, national news

Is this crisis making us a bit nicer to each other?

Maybe it’s just me, but I have this feeling in my gut that the coronavirus pandemic is helping create a society that is just a bit more courteous.

I kind of feel it when I go to the grocery store, or to fill my truck with fuel, or when I meet folks on the street. I find myself smiling a little more broadly at total strangers and they are returning likewise smiles to me. Our neighbors here in Princeton are offering to help us if we need it; we are returning the offer to them.

Is this what’s happening?

Our local TV stations are full of public service announcements that remind us that “we’re all in this together.”

My wife and I went to a supermarket in Farmersville the other day. We ventured about six miles east along U.S. Highway 380 to see for ourselves what we had heard from an acquaintance, that this store was doing an exemplary job of keeping their shelves stocked while so many of us are hoarding certain products.

We were standing near the stand-up freezers, watching store employees rushing to fill them with frozen vegetables. I was struck by the thought: You know, these folks might be performing one of the most valuable jobs in this community. They were hustling with broad smiles on their faces.

No one, as near as I can tell, welcomes the restricted movements we are enduring, or welcomes the rules that governments are imposing on our daily lives.

The medical personnel at our local hospitals, I am absolutely certain, do not welcome the stress they are facing as they perform heroic acts treating those afflicted with the coronavirus. They deserve our gratitude, our thanks and our best wishes as they struggle to keep our community healthy.

I hope I do not have to thank them personally while they treat me or any member of my family. I am more than willing to express my thanks to them all through this forum.

All of this just might be an unintended, but welcome, consequence of this serious crisis. It’s bringing out the best in us.

national news

Why the opposition to Donald Trump?

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

This might surprise some readers of this blog, but I actually do ponder at times why I oppose Donald John Trump so vehemently, so angrily, with so much hostility.

It’s true. At times my anger toward this individual troubles me. Then I reflect on the danger he presents to the country he was elected to lead. Upon reflection, my anxiety dissipates.

My opposition to Trump is visceral. It is intensely personal.

I’ve never lost a dime investing in anything with this clown’s name on it. So it’s not that. I never have met him or seen him in person, which means he has never insulted me personally. Nix that reason, too.

It’s just that Donald Trump was in our face for many years prior to the moment he decided to become a politician. Most of us knew of The Donald, a flamboyant businessman who boasted of his “self-made” status. To be candid, I believed it, not that it made him any more palatable. It was his personality that grated on me as I watched him from some distance interject himself into the news of the day.

The Central Park Jogger comes to mind. He called for the execution of five young men — all of color — even after they had been cleared of any charges relating to the beating and rape of a woman in New York City.

It was clear to me long ago that Trump had focused like a laser on one goal during his entire professional life: self-enrichment. He was in it for himself. No one else mattered.

So, he brought all of that reputation with him into the political arena. He made that showy entrance in Trump Tower in June 2015, declared his candidacy and immediately impugned immigrants from Mexico.

The rest of this clown’s public posture is well-known. I won’t regurgitate the record here.

It’s just that my gut-wrenching, visceral dislike and distaste for this guy eclipses whatever this individual has to say.

It has little to do with policy. Trump doesn’t believe in anything. He is without principle. He lacks morals. He cannot be trusted at any level. Donald Trump is a pathological liar who lies about big things and small things. It matters not one damn bit to him.

So, my animosity is alive and well. I doubt it will ever subside. Donald Trump has been in front of us for too long. To be candid, he has been in a pain in my backside for far longer than he’s been president of the United States.

One more thing: I oppose this individual out of pure and categorical love for my country. Donald Trump is destroying the exalted office he occupies.

I want him to vanish from the public stage.

local news

Parks are open … just don’t go there

What you see in this picture is a kids park with playground equipment in Collin County, Texas, where the county judge issued a confusing order regarding the coronavirus pandemic that has struck down hundreds of thousands of human beings around the world.

Judge Chris Hill declared that parks shall remain open. Businesses can continue to operate in Collin County as well.

But wait! Gov. Greg Abbott has imposed a 10-person maximum limit for all gatherings, indoors and outdoors alike!

So, I guess this all means that if your children want to go to the park, they can do so legally, but they have to stay away from their pals, that they have to practice “social distancing” by staying more than six feet away. Have you ever tried to enforce such a rule with a toddler, or even a kindergartner?

Judge Chris Hill had a chance this week to impose a countywide shelter in place rule; he could have closed businesses the way many cities have done in the county and throughout the state. He didn’t.

I attended a Farmersville City Council meeting Tuesday night and the consensus among city officials there is that Chris Hill’s ruling was long on confusion but maddeningly short on clarity.

Leadership? It’s lacking at the Collin County courthouse … just as it’s lacking in the White House.

religious news

Trump wants to fill church pews before virus is eradicated

This is a tough message to deliver, but I’ll do so anyway.

Donald Trump could be complicit in the deaths of potentially thousands of Americans if churches across the country open their doors for worshipers on Easter. Why? Because there is no way in the world that the worldwide coronavirus pandemic will be over by then.

And yet the president of the United States is calling on the United States to get back to its “normal” living and he has targeted Easter as the date when that should happen. That’s a “beautiful deadline,” Trump has said. He wants church sanctuaries to fill up with worshipers on Easter. Yep … go ahead and cram yourselves into those pews, sitting right next to someone who might carry the virus.

Ah, but here’s the good news: The president has virtually no actual power to mandate such a dangerous, reckless and thoughtless order. That power rests in the hands of governors, who have the authority to resist calls to allow churches and other houses of worship — as well as schools and assorted businesses — to reopen.

However, should a governor be foolish enough to follow the president’s lead, then they, too, would join Trump in his complicity in the deaths of possibly thousands of Americans.

Donald Trump is fixated on the nation’s economy. He needs to focus at least as much attention on the safety, health and well-being of those he swore an oath to protect against all enemies. Hasn’t he called the coronavirus an “invisible enemy”? Well, yes he has.

The president is neglecting the oath he took. I’d say he “should be ashamed,” except that this clown has no shame.

State news

Not afraid to die for the economy?

1 Comment

Dan Patrick does not make me proud. On the contrary, the Texas lieutenant governor makes me ashamed that most Texans have elected and re-elected this bozo to what arguably is the most powerful office in Texas government.

He presides over the Texas Senate. He wields his power with maximum confidence. He can punish senators who don’t toe the line, such as what he did prior to the 2019 Legislature when he stripped state Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo of key committee assignments. For what reason? Because Seliger was the lone Republican senator to decline to sign a letter endorsing Patrick for re-election in 2018.

Now Patrick has popped off, saying that old folks are willing to die from the coronavirus if it means the nation’s economy gets jump-started. What has this clown been swilling?

Patrick apparently thinks that old folks are expendable. As a 70-year-old Texas resident, I deeply, profoundly and categorically resent and reject that idiocy.

Moreover, the 69-year-old Patrick also seems to be willing to take one for the team.

According to NBC News: Patrick, who said he will turn 70 next week, said that he did not fear COVID-19, but feared that stay-at-home orders and economic upheaval would destroy the American way of life.

Well, I’ll just offer this: His fear of “stay-at-home orders” is so much horsesh**. 

Thanks a lot, Dan Patrick. This great state of ours deserves much better than what we are getting from you.

Moron.

media news

In need of a respite from this madness

I am in desperate need of a respite, a break, a breather from the madness that has overtaken Planet Earth.

We’re caught up in this pandemic crisis. The coronavirus is killing thousands of human beings each day now. We hear glimmers of good news: the death rate is slowing in Italy, as are the new cases of infection; China is reporting no new cases; same with South Korea.

Here, though, in the U.S. of A., our infection rate is still accelerating. So is our death rate.

All in all, the media are doing a stellar job of reporting it to us. We’re being kept informed. I want to stay informed. I need to know whether my family is safe from this disease and I am relying on the media to tell me.

That all said, I need some relief from what is inundating us.

The Internet keeps me plugged in 24/7. I’m fine with that. I can turn it on — or off — as the spirits move me.

At this moment, the spirits are telling me to turn it off for a while.

Heaven knows the president of the United States, the fellow elected to lead us through crises such as this, isn’t doing his job. He’s blathering, spitting out lies and half-truths while expecting us to ignore their obvious fakery. Maybe that’s the source of my need for a break. I cannot listen to him.

So, I’m going to take a break. I don’t know how long it’ll last. Probably not long. I could return damn near any minute after I post this item. It’s a combination of what I call “pandemic fatigue” and profound disgust at the lies I keep hearing from Donald Trump.

For now … I’m out. See you on the other side.

national news

Olympics delayed … but Trump wants to reopen the United States

The juxtaposition of two compelling stories is mind-boggling in the extreme.

Donald John Trump says he wants to get the U.S. reopened by Easter, that it’s time to juice up our economy and get it “rarin’ to go.” The pandemic be damned, according to the president of the United States. We need to get our businesses restarted, he says.

Meanwhile …

The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese Olympic organizers today announced that the Summer Games in Tokyo will be delayed for at least a year. Why? Because the IOC and the Japanese government don’t want to expose spectators and athletes to unnecessary and possibly deadly harm by exposing them to individuals who might be carrying the coronavirus.

Do you get my point?

Donald Trump doesn’t give a crap about public health. He is more keen on revving up the economy. Olympic organizers are so concerned about public health that they are willing to take an unprecedented action by delaying the Summer Olympics for as long as it takes for everyone involved to be safe from potentially deadly illness.

On whose side are you?

I’ll stand with those who want to ensure public safety during this very perilous time. The current president of the United States is on the wrong side.