Monthly Archives: September 2021

medical news, national news

‘Genius’ put in perspective

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“Let’s be clear on what genius is. Genius is intelligence. Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence. It is not a sign of weakness. It is not a sign that you’re not strong in your convictions. It is a sign that you’re open minded. And that’s a good thing.”

– Mike Greenberg

The quote you see here is attributed to a sports journalist. I didn’t hear him say it, but I trust the source from where it came.

When I saw this comment on a social media page, the name “Anthony Fauci” came immediately to mind. Why that name?

Fauci is the nation’s premier authority on infectious disease. Donald Trump summoned him to help devise strategies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He then dismissed much of the advice that Fauci gave him. The 45th president lost re-election in November this past year.

President Joe Biden has kept Fauci on board the team of medical experts.

Fauci, you see, has changed his mind on a few things lately. Most notably, he has changed his mind about mask-wearing and whether masks are helpful in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Fauci critics — namely Republicans and assorted pandemic deniers — have been heard saying Fauci should be fired. That his change of mind only proves he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

In the words of the inimitable Col. Sherman T. Potter: buffalo bagels!

Fauci’s brilliance must not be measured against his ability to determine immediately how a nation should tackle a killer virus. I daresay Dr. Fauci hasn’t dealt with a pandemic of this nature and scope. He learns something new practically each day, forcing him to change his mind on how to respond the virus.

Is he a genius? You bet he is. I will accept that he is able to learn something new and valuable every time he changes his mind.

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local news, national news

Anger just won’t go away

The anger I feel toward the (thankfully) single-term presidency of the 45th POTUS just won’t dissipate.

Critics of this blog say I harbor “hatred” toward that individual. I don’t think that’s the case. I have worked my entire life — at least for as long as I have been old enough to care about such matters — to avoid hating anyone.

But my goodness. Why do I harbor this notion when I see a “Trump-Pence 2020” sign in front of a business or a flag flying from its roof with a similar message that I do not want to enter that place to do any business with them?

We traveled recently to Washington County, Texas, which I am going to presume is the heart of many of folks’ political universe. We have seen Trump-Pence signs on lawns throughout Brenham, the county seat. Washington County voters cast 74% percent of their ballots for POTUS 45 in the 2020 election. Some Texas counties logged greater percentages for him last time out. Still, three out of four ballots going to this guy? Wow!

I don’t think much about signs in front of people’s homes. They’re entitled to their views, just as I am entitled to mine.

The business owners, though, who boast about supporting an amoral, sociopathic, twice-impeached liar just continues to boggle my noggin.

I don’t get it. I cannot darken their door. I will elsewhere to do business.

All I need is a business owner to refrain from declaring publicly his or her support of an individual who very well could end up being indicted for felony criminal activity.

Meanwhile, I might need therapy to get over this first-time-ever feeling toward a cheap politician.

Pray for me. Please?

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medical news, political news

Add a word to your shirt

BRENHAM, Texas — It didn’t surprise me in the least to see a dipsh** walking around the Washington Country Fairgrounds wearing a shirt that had a message that sought to stick in the eye of those of us who insist on getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

We traveled to the center of some folks’ political universe. I swear I saw more “Trump-Pence: Make America Great” lawn signs and banners than I have seen in a good while.

Back to the moron and his t-shirt.

The shirt in part read: Unafraid, Unapologetic, Unvaccinated. There was a fourth “un”-word, but I cannot remember it now.

My thought when I saw this clown was that he should have added another term. That would be “uncaring.” He doesn’t care about his loved ones who might become exposed to the virus he might be backing around at this very moment.

We stayed far away from this clown.

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local news

In search of a community identity

My wife and I live in a growing North Texas community that, as near as I can tell, is searching to create an identity for itself.

Princeton doesn’t seem to have a community ID. I don’t hear much talk about finding one. Having lived there for more than two years — and we intend for it to be our “forever home” — it’s just a feeling I get when I venture around the city to run errands or to do whatever it is semi-retired guys do.

The city will have an election in November to take a baby step toward establishing an identity. Princeton will ask voters to approve the establishment of a citizens committee to draft a home-rule charter. The aim is to reel in the reins of power to City Hall and to set the governing rules right here at home. Princeton, which now is home to more than 18,000 residents (and counting!) is governed under “general law,” meaning that the Legislature sets the rules for how this exploding community governs itself.

City Makes Another Run At Home-Rule Charter (ketr.org)

Princeton has tried four times to establish a home rule charter ever since it crossed the 5,000-resident threshold established by the Texas Constitution. Residents who don’t even live in the city have spearheaded efforts to defeat the measure all four times; the anti-charter cabal lives in what is called the city’s “extraterritorial jurisdiction.”

Princeton needs to establish the identity I sense is missing. There is no bustling downtown district. City Hall is going to move from its paltry location along U.S. 380 just west of Second Avenue to a shiny new complex just east of Princeton High School. The municipal complex is going to be a thing of beauty.

Princeton To Welcome New Government Complex (ketr.org)

I don’t have the precise answer as to how Princeton establishes its community ID or how it defines it. I do believe, though, that a thriving community must be more than a sea of rooftops under which families live after working all day. Bedroom communities are fine. I just want more for the city where my wife and I plan to live for the proverbial duration.

Is the home rule charter election set for November a small step toward that end? I do hope so. I want to see take the next step in the spring when it asks voters to decide on the future of a home rule charter for Princeton.

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entertainment news

Keep your trap shut, Nicki Minaj

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Allow me this admission: I know next to nothing about Nicki Minaj.

I do know that she is a celebrity of some standing. She’s a singer, or so I hear. She’s also been in the news over the years because of some strange behavior

Now, though, she’s become a social media “influencer” (this is the first time I’ve ever referred to this term; I hope I am doing so correctly).

Minaj said that the COVID-19 vaccine has adverse effects on men’s private parts and — this is fantastic! — it makes them impotent.

Hmm. Did the flashy, flamboyant Minaj earn an MD under cover of night? Well, no. She was passing on something she heard from a friend of a fiance … or some such nonsense.

But like most people who have obtained out of whack celebrity status, the things she says somehow carries more currency than it deserves. People actually believe what she said about the vaccine.

I am no more of a medical expert than Nicki Minaj. I damn sure don’t have the celebrity following she enjoys. I would hope that were I to obtain that kind of status that I would talk only and openly about matters with which I am familiar.

As near as I can tell, Nicki Minaj doesn’t know a damn thing about a killer virus and the vaccines that have been researched and developed to kill it.

My advice to Ms. Minaj? Shut the hell up! Or at least speak out on things about which you know … whatever that might be.

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DC riot

Ex-VP Quayle: new hero

It’s time for me to admit something.

I was willing to give former Vice President Mike Pence the benefit of ample doubt over his role in the 1/6 insurrection launched on Capitol Hill by the riotous mob of domestic terrorists.

They stormed the Capitol Building, some of whom were yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” Why did they want to string him up? Because he was doing his constitutional duty by presiding over the certification of the Electoral College totals from the 2020 presidential election.

He resisted POTUS 45’s demand for him to “overturn” the results. Good for the veep, I thought, and said so out loud.

Now comes this bit of news from a book just released by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, authors of “Peril”: Pence had to be persuaded that there was nothing he could do to overturn the results.

The persuader? His pal and fellow Indiana resident former VP Dan Quayle, the guy who once was a laughingstock because he once misspelled “potato” in front of elementary school students.

Quayle told his VPOTUS successor that there was nothing he could. Pence reportedly asked for guidance, sought a clue as to how he could rig the election result to produce a victory for himself and the guy who was running for re-election as POTUS.

Dan Quayle has emerged as the unsung hero of that hideous insurrection.

Quayle had danced to that tune already, in January 1993, as he presided over an Electoral College certification after he and President George H.W. Bush lost their re-election bid in a fight against Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

That GOP team, though, did it right. President Bush and Vice President Quayle both accepted their defeat. They presided over a seamless transition and then faded away, stepping out of the limelight.

If only POTUS 45 would learn … if only.

As for Mike Pence, Woodward and Costa have revealed him to be what many of us knew all along: He was the No. 1 sycophant to a twice-impeached POTUS.

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military news, national news

Gen. Milley acted correctly

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If we are to believe the reporting of two world-class journalists — and I do — about the chaotic final days of the Trump administration, then we also can believe that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff perceived that the president posed an existential threat to our very nation.

Bob Woodward and Robert Costa have written a book titled “Peril.” They chronicle how the 45th president of the United States sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election that delivered Joe Biden to the presidency.

One of the many episodes they chronicle involves Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, who believed the POTUS was capable of starting a nuclear war with China. What did Milley do, according to Woodward and Costa? He called his counterpart in Beijing to warn him of what he feared might happen.

As you might expect, Republicans are hollering “treason!” and suggest that Milley went outside the chain of command. They are calling for his resignation, or his arrest and conviction by court martial. The Constitution does declare that civilians set military policy.

I do not believe Gen. Milley committed a treasonous act. He did the right thing. He perceived that the sociopathic narcissist who had lost a free and fair election was capable of doing immense harm to this country and, apparently in Milley’s eyes, to the entire planet.

Milley aimed to head off a presidential effort to cling to power by any means necessary.

Truth be told … I cannot fault Gen. Milley for that.

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medical news

Pro-choice and pro-life? Yep!

The debate over the hideous Texas anti-abortion law has me tied in knots. Sort of.

Some of my more conservative friends and family members — yes, I have many of them on the other side of the great political divide — might be wondering why I would be so adamantly opposed to the law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

I am both pro-choice and pro-life on abortion.

No. I do not see any contradiction. I will explain.

I could never provide advice for a woman to get an abortion. I am not wired that way. The issue, for starters, is none of my damn business. The decision rests solely with the woman, her partner, her religious counselor and with God Almighty.

To that extent, I consider myself pro-life.

However, the bigger issue for me is the meddlesome nature of legislation that seeks to dictate to a woman how she can manage affairs of her body. Texas legislators have crossed far into territory where they should not tread.

The law in Texas prohibits a woman from obtaining an abortion any earlier than six weeks into her pregnancy. It doesn’t make any exceptions for rape or incest.

The ghastliest part of the law is that it allows total strangers to rat out a woman if he or she learns she is going to get an abortion. We have created a vigilante corps in Texas. It allows these strangers to meddle where they damn sure don’t belong.

A friend of mine in Amarillo once said he believed in the Biblical theory of Earth’s creation and in the theory of evolution.

What’s more, I once saw a sticker that asked: “Aren’t you glad that the Virgin Mary was pro-life?” Hmm. Well, she also was pro-choice because she “chose” to give birth to the baby who gave Christianity its name.

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national news

A ‘rigged’ election?

Wait for it.

Republicans who will get their heads handed to them in California have begun reciting another version of The Big Lie.

They want to boot Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom out of office. They’re having an election tonight. Newsom will keep his hold on the governorship.

The Big Lie being resurrected by the GOP is that the result is “rigged.” It’s corrupt, they say. They are cutting their own throats by suggesting that the electoral process is not to be trusted.

I’ll be glad to sharpen the rhetorical blade for them.

The leading Republican who is challenging Newsom is radio blowhard Larry Elder. He won’t ascend to the governor’s office. Elder knows it. However, he is now offering the “rigged election” defense for the fact that Newsom’s campaign caught fire in recent days and appears poised to put down this ridiculous recall effort.

I have to say that the “rigged” allegation before any votes are counted does require a huge suspension of disbelief.

Except for this: The GOP out west has ripped a page right out of the playbook used by the disgraced, twice-impeached former POTUS.

Spoiler alert: The California election is not “rigged.”

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Donald Trump, national news

Bring on the clones!

President Biden has called a leading opponent of California Gov. Gavin Newsom a “clone of … ” oh, you know, the immediate former president of the United States.

I just refer him by various epithets and a mention that he once was the 45th president of the U.S. of A.

Cult leaders have this way of building followings that comprise many such “clones.” Larry Elder, a right-wing talker/blowhard/Big Lie conveyer is just one of ’em.

Newsom figures to survive the recall effort launched against him in the Golden State. Then he can get back to governing and trying to (a) deal with the climate change-induced wildfires and (b) wage war against the COVID 19 pandemic.

What happens now with the cultist who rose to become a leading challenger to the governor? He’ll try to parlay his enhanced celebrity status into some sort of mini-following of his own out west.

This guy Elder is just one of the sickening consequences of the wreckage left behind by the 45t POTUS. He ain’t alone. We have seen and heard from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, congressmen and women from various states throughout the old Confederacy.

My “favorite” clone happens to be Kevin McCarthy, the GOP House leader from California (which goes to show that not all Californians can be labeled as far-leftists). McCarthy actually has said some harsh things about the 45th POTUS in the immediate wake of the 1/6 insurrection. Then he backed off. Now he opposes any independent probe into what happened that terrible day when terrorists stormed Capitol Hill to overturn the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

McCarthy also is a clone of the disgraced, twice-impeached ex-Liar in Chief. McCarthy is a disgraceful political hack. Enough about him … the loser.

The Cult Leader in Chief is leaving us with a shameful legacy of lying, political perversion, sedition and conduct that I would consider to be treasonous. He won’t darken the White House door ever again. His clones will keep up the fight whenever they have a forum to spew their filth.

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