Monthly Archives: August 2023

local news

Working through hangups

I am working my way through a couple of lingering hangups that I cannot release … seven months since cancer took my bride, Kathy Anne, away from me.

One of them deals with what I call the “d” word. You know what it is. It rhymes with “bread.” I am not sure if I am ever going to be able to say the word in describing Kathy Anne’s condition. I am acutely aware of the finality of her passing. I am made aware of it whenever I want to tell her something, only to realize that I cannot do so.

I don’t need to repeat certain words to remind me of what I already know to be true.

The other hangup deals with the “w” word. I am going to stick with “husband” to describe myself. I will be Kathy Anne’s “husband” for as long as I walk this good Earth. Before you get all bothered over the obvious, which is how that might work were I to develop another relationship, I will concede my intention to rethink that commitment should circumstances ever require it.

Kathy Anne once told me in clear and concise terms that she wanted me to find someone in the event of her passing; I believe I said the same thing to her. She insisted that I deserved to be happy. I can recall that conversation clearly even as I grapple with the hangups I have mentioned here … but I’m not there.

I am in the here and now, still trying to navigate my way through my new life. The journey is getting easier all the time. Some days are better than others, but all told, I am doing far better today than I was a week ago. Hangups be damned!

Friends and family have told me to take it all “one day at a time.” I am following their advice. It works.

International news

Putin gets his payback

Yevgeny Prigozhin seems to have died in a plane crash today.

I say “seems” because Russian authorities haven’t yet declared that he is indeed one of the 10 people who died when the plane plummeted to the ground.

Who is this guy? Two months ago, he mounted a mutiny against Russian strongman Vladimir Putin with his mercenary army  marching within spitting distance of Moscow. Prigozhin called off his challenge to Putin, retreated to Belarus, and then Putin declared that he wouldn’t exact any punishment against Prigozhin.

Then this happened. Coincidence? Hardly!

The death of this thoroughly bad actor shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone. Putin’s promise to let Prigozhin live on was pure BS and those who follow Kremlin intrigue knew it when Putin made the declaration.

I am not mourning Prigozhin’s apparent demise. I am just aghast that Vladimir Putin would follow the script from which he has been reading once again … while the world is watching how he is prosecuting an illegal and immoral war against Ukraine.

crime news

Is Trump disqualified?

Can it possibly be true that Donald J. Trump’s conduct on 1/6 — his provoking the assault on our government and his giving “aid and comfort” to those who mounted the attack — has disqualified him from seeking the presidency?

That is the view of two highly esteemed legal experts. One of them is a conservative, the other is a liberal. They are, respectively, former U.S. District Judge Michael Luttig and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe.

The have written an op-ed in which they declare that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution means that Trump is hereby disqualified from seeking the presidency. Period … full stop!

Luttig said that when the amendment was ratified in 1868 — shortly after the Civil War — it made no qualifier to declaring someone ineligible if they knowingly engaged in an insurrection or rebellion. The amendment’s intent was to prevent another war within the United States.

Indeed, at least two congressional leaders — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell — are on record declaring that Trump was responsible for the attack on the government that sought to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Oh, did I mention that Trump lost that election to Joe Biden?

They have been joined, interestingly, by a host of conservative legal scholars who contend that Trump, indeed, should be barred from the presidential ballot because of what he said that day on the Ellipse. He challenged the crowd to take control of the electoral process and stop the certification of what he contends to this day as a “stolen” election.

Two conservative law professors, William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, wrote in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, according to CBS News:

In writing about Trump’s speech from the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, to his supporters who then overran the Capitol, Baude and Paulsen said Trump delivered a “general and specific message” that the election was stolen, calling on the crowd to take immediate action to block the transfer of power before falling silent for hours as the insurrection progressed.

“Trump’s deliberate inaction renders his January 6 speech much more incriminating in hindsight, because it makes it even less plausible (if it was ever plausible) that the crowd’s reaction was all a big mistake or misunderstanding,” they write.

Oh … my … goodness!

When those upon whom you depend for legal support turn on you in this fashion, it seems to me that it’s time to call it quits.

crime news

Trump ‘defenders’ go on attack

Donald J. Trump’s “defenders” have a curious and frankly ingenious method of standing behind their cult hero.

Many of them acknowledge Trump’s multiple failings, but then engage in that curious game of “whataboutism” relating to President Biden.

They say things like, “Sure, Trump is crooked … but what about Joe Biden? He is, too! You know?”

A fellow with whom I am acquainted only casually is a frequent critic of this blog. He keeps insisting he doesn’t “give a sh**” about Trump. Except that he does. How do I know that? Because whenever I post a critical blog item about Trump — calling attention to his crooked past — this fellow jumps out of his skin long enough to tell me that Biden is even more crooked than Trump.

He mentions the Hunter Biden stuff (of course!) and then declares that Daddy Biden must be corrupt as well because someone alleges some connection between Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the president, who once served as VP.

The intent of this fellow’s whataboutism is to harm President Biden and benefit Trump. So … he doesn’t “give a sh** about Trump?” Of course he does! Just as I, too, “give a sh** about the ex-POTUS, although certainly not for the same reasons.

I simply must applaud the Trump cultists, though, for devising this strategy, which is proving to be effective. It has kept President Biden’s approval ratings down from where I believe they should be.

In the final analysis, though, this non-defense defense of an ex-POTUS will not return him to the White House. I take considerable comfort in believing that Donald John Trump is toast.

crime news, legal news, national news, political news

GOP awash in contradiction

An astonishing array of competing opinions has gripped the Republican Party by the throat as its presidential stable of candidates prepares to debate on an Iowa stage.

The “star of the show” is a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted candidate for POTUS, Donald Trump … who isn’t even going to be there for the opening round of Q&A.

He’s the talk of the event in absentia. Imagine had he decided to take part. He’d be the talk of the event in that context as well.

I am going to presume this is what Trump has wanted. He is a media hog, even as he proclaims the media to be “the enemy of the people.” The truth is he loves the media and the media love him despite rumors to the contrary about media bias against Trump.

His presence on the political stage has thrown the entire process into chaos, which was one of the hallmarks of the time he held the office of president. His alleged “style” of governing hardly ever contained a moment of research of actual scholarship. He thrived on his “hunch” and his “belief” in what someone had told him.

What continues to astound me, truth be told, is that all of this is OK with the gullible MAGA morons who continue to back this clown’s latest presidential candidacy.

We are left, then, with circumstances in which Trump becomes the story. He’s not at the debate? He’s the story. Would he show up? He is still the story.

This is the environment that makes Donald Trump most comfortable. It saddens me to say it, but it also demonstrates most graphically one more reason why he is patently unfit to hold the office he is seeking.

local news, media news

When to close an ‘open meeting’

I tend to view the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act through a fairly strict prism, meaning that exemptions granted should be interpreted strictly.

What do I mean? The act allows governments to close their meetings to the public when discussing pending litigation, real estate transactions or personnel matters. It’s the last of those provisions that has caught my attention.

The Princeton City Council plans to go into closed session soon to discuss who it wants to select as its Place 4 council member, replacing Keven Underwood, who resigned from the council after serving nearly three years; Underwood is battling some health issues … and I certainly wish him well as he continues that fight.

But is a city council member the same as, say, the police chief, the fire chief, the city manager or any other full-time paid staffer who draws a paycheck from City Hall? I submit that, no — he or she is not the same.

Which brings me to my point about the Open Meetings Law. Its exemptions are understandable and are more or less clearcut.

I long have interpreted the law to exempt discussions involving the disciplining of city employees, or their hiring and firing. I never have considered a member of the governing body to fall under the “personnel” provision used to talk about a pending appointment to that very governing body.

I am going to presume the Princeton City Council consulted with its legal counsel on this matter before deciding to go into executive session to talk about Underwood’s successor. And that the city attorney gave his blessing to the decision to keep it secret.

I also get that the council members are entitled to speak candidly about potential applicants and perhaps don’t want their true feelings about an individual to be known by everyone in town.

It’s just that the city council is not a “paid position” the way someone who answers to a municipal administrator is paid. The city councilman or woman is the “boss” at City Hall … and doesn’t belong in the same category of employee as the people who report to the council.

Thus, these laws designed to keep matters crystal clear at times get a bit murky.

media news

To watch or not watch GOP debate

I want to be candid: I do not yet know at this moment whether I intend to watch the Republican Party’s presidential primary debate tomorrow night.

The so-called “frontrunner,” Donald John Trump, says he won’t attend. Which brings me to this: What’s the point of watching if the main man ain’t there?

GOP operatives say Trump is scared sh**less of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has made Trump’s unfitness for office the focal point of his campaign. Christie no doubt will push hard on that notion in Trump’s absence.

I have no clue what runs through what passes for Trump’s mind. He doesn’t have a heart, so there’s no need to wonder about that, right?

Well, I reckon I’ll probably watch it just to get a grip on how far the rest of the field will go in taking down this charlatan/fraud/pretender.

Then again, a major part of me also wants to see how Trump would defend himself against the allegations that will bombard Trump’s empty podium.

national news

Are we in that much trouble?

This much is absolutely certain to me as I watch the 2024 presidential election campaign and its cast of characters play out.

Which is that if a once-great political party is willing to nominate someone who has been indicted four times for felonies against the very government he swore to “defend and protect” then we are in worse shape than I ever imagined.

I say that believing two things. One is that I do not believe Donald J. Trump will be nominated by the Republican Party; the other is that he is nominated, he will go down in flames in a Democratic Party landslide … current poll numbers notwithstanding.

I have seen the polls in Iowa, where the GOP is going conduct its caucus at the beginning of the new year. Polling data show Trump with a sizable lead among Republicans seeking the party nomination. The polls tell me that the MAGA base that Trump courts is energized. The gullible goons who comprise that base cannot — or will not — grasp the reality that their guy could be sentenced to prison before they count the votes in Iowa.

Prosecutors have asked for a January 2024 trial on the indictment stemming from his role in inciting the assault on our government on 1/6. Think about that just a moment. Donald Trump could campaign for the presidency after being convicted of a federal felony crime! Dude could spend the rest of his miserable life in prison!

But at this moment in our nation’s otherwise glorious history, we stand on the verge of a criminal defendant being nominated by a major political party to become POTUS … again, after being impeached twice by the House of Representatives the first time he held the office.

I am shaking my noggin vigorously.

medical news

COVID not gone!

Some distressing news came in the other day when I learned that a longtime friend and former colleague died of complications from COVID-19.

It served as a gigantic reminder that the coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million Americans is still around.  It still is harming us. We must be mindful of its presence. We should take all necessary precautions once we are aware of any possible exposure to the killer virus.

Kenton Brooks was just 67 years of age. He was still working, as far as I know, in the business of daily journalism. He had contracted the virus while working and living in Muskogee, Okla. His symptoms deteriorated rapidly and he was rushed to ICU in Tulsa, where he passed away.

He is far from the first friend I have lost to this disease. I hope he is the last one, at least for a good while.

I have heard all along that we likely never will be rid completely of the virus, that it won’t be eradicated. Indeed, I have heard in recent days about a possible spike in cases in the country, caused in large part by Americans getting out more and perhaps ignoring the precautions they had taken to avoid being stricken.

I have been reawakened to the need to take care of myself. Social distancing is back on my to-do list of precautions, along with frequent hand-washing/sanitizing; and, yes, I am going to keep masks handy in case the need should arise for me to wear one.

I also admit to being a bit nonchalant about the disease. My friend’s passing has cured me of it.

crime news, local news, State news

Wishing for a conviction

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slapped a gag order on Texas senators preparing to try Attorney General Ken Paxton for a rash of allegations of misconduct.

Fine. The gag order doesn’t affect bloggers like me, or any Texan with an opinion on what ought to happen when the Senate convenes the trial on Sept. 5.

What should happen? Texas senators ought to be able to muster up enough courage to boot the sorry out of the office he has sullied since 2015. What will happen? That remains anyone’s guess … but it is looking as though the evidence of Paxton’s alleged abuse of office is building toward a conviction.

For instance, we hear now about cell phones and aliases used by Paxton to hide behavior for which he is being tried.

The Texas House impeached Paxton with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. The Senate has to scale a higher wall if it is to convict this embarrassment of an AG; it needs a two-thirds vote to oust Paxton.

The guy has been nothing but an embarrassment since taking office after the 2014 election. A Collin County grand jury indicted him for securities fraud early in his term … and it has downhill ever since.

How is it that the state’s top law enforcement officer cannot emerge from under the clouds of suspicious activity? This one is stained indelibly.

I dare not predict what the Senate will do. I can hope, though, that enough senators have seen and heard enough from this clown to boot his sorry backside out of office and send him back into private life.

I’ve made no bones about how Paxton has pissed me off repeatedly since becoming Texas AG. He has interfered with efforts to try to reverse the 2020 election results, only to be scolded by the U.S. Supreme Court that he had no authority to tell other states how to run their elections. He continually sues the federal government, with the lawsuits going essentially nowhere.

Twenty Texas senators need to convict this moron; that means about eight Republicans need to flip against the GOP attorney general. My hope is that the GOP senators have more courage than their federal counterparts demonstrated when they let Donald Trump wriggle free.

I am going hold out eternal hope we are going to be rid of Texas AG Ken Paxton.