Monthly Archives: February 2024

local news

The mustache stays … period!

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This post is for those I haven’t known since The Flood. It is for relatively recent acquaintances and friends, some of whom ask me this question at this time of year:

Is the mustache coming off, too, along with the rest of your facial hair? Answer: nope; not even.

The mustache has been part of my face since 1970. Except for a brief period in 1980 when I decided to shave it off. Big mistake.

I started growing it as I was preparing to exit the Army. I had returned from Vietnam and was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., just up the highway from my Portland, Ore., hometown.

It was July 1970. I was a month from shucking the uniform forever and returning to civilian life. I grew the mustache. I liked it. It quickly became part of me.

Then a decade later, I decided to shave it off. I had two small boys at home with me. I came out of the bathroom and presented my clean-shaven face to my family. My bride, Kathy Anne, approved. The boys? They couldn’t stop laughing.

They were six and five. They had never seen Dad without facial hair. For that matter, neither had Kathy Anne … but she was cool with the “new” me.

My sons’ laughter never let up. After less than a week of it, I surrendered. The stubble returned. Soon it blossomed into a full-grown mustache. It has stayed.

The beard comes and goes. I usually shave it off every spring. This year it came off about a month early. Which is OK. Kathy Anne preferred I keep it year-round. We would “fight” good naturedly when the time came to shave it off. I no longer have to wage that fake fight. So, it came off.

But come this autumn, the beard will return as it does every year.

I just wanted to share this bit of useless info. You are now free to pursue more important matters.

local news

Stay busy: essence of life

My many friends — those I have had for decades and those I have just met — all say the same thing as I trudge on through the rest of my life’s journey.

Stay busy. Get busy. If you have nothing to do, find something to do. Build structure in your life. Fill the dates on your calendar.

My journey is commencing its second year without the love of my life at my side. We commemorated the first year of Kathy Anne’s passing quietly. My sons were with me for a while that day. Then we went about our daily routines.

But my life is taking some form these days. I am restructuring my daily routine to accommodate tasks that need doing and duties I need to perform.

For instance, today I took on a task that will enable me to serve a community I have grown to love. I have been a member of the Farmersville Rotary Club for a couple of years and its president-elect asked me to serve on the board, heading up the membership element of the service organization. She wants me to be in charge of recruiting new members.

“Yes!” I said with no small measure of enthusiasm. I am happy to do it. Not just for the club, but also for myself. I am getting a chance to fill in one more spot on my calendar.

One of my sons told me today that after Kathy Anne passed away, he was able to continue his work for his employer as a way to keep his mind occupied and to “relieve myself of the grief I was suffering.”

My journey has brightened significantly over the past year. I have made new friends who know the story of the loss we suffered. They have delivered the same message … beyond offering their love and support.

It is to stay busy. Find structure in your life. Build on it. Relish the responsibility you will take on.

Message heard.

local news, State news

Censure House speaker … for what?

For the life of me I cannot understand what in the world has gotten into the noggins of many Texas Republicans these days.

Now the state Republican Party has censured one of their own, House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont, because he didn’t stop the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton this past year.

Have these people lost their MAGA-muddled minds? Have they all gone ’round the bend? Have they all swilled the MAGA Kool-Aid offered by the former POTUS, the guy who has called for Phelan to resign from the House, even though he doesn’t know a damn thing about how Texas politics works?

Phelan presided over Paxton’s impeachment, which occurred after a House committee recommended the AG be impeached because of the shabby way he runs his office. The House voted overwhelmingly to impeach Paxton, but then the Senate acquitted him in a trial that lasted about a week.

The state GOP is still chapped over the impeachment. The censure is being fueled by the MAGA wing of the Texas GOP

To be clear, I want to stipulate a couple of things about Phelan. I don’t know the fellow, even though I lived and worked in Beaumont for nearly 11 years. I only was casually acquainted with Phelan’s father, an uber-rich Beaumont developer. I have heard from some of my Golden Triangle snitches that Dade Phelan was cut from the traditional Republican fabric that creates a politician who favors wealthy Texans. Therefore, he is a standard GOP pol.

He also just happens to be a fellow, apparently, who dislikes corrupt politicians … even when such allegations stain the records of fellow Republicans.

Texas GOP censures House Speaker Dade Phelan over Paxton impeachment (houstonchronicle.com)

It makes me wonder: Why in the world is that such a bad thing, something the produces censure?

As the Houston Chronicle has reported: Phelan has remained defiant in the face of the criticism and has touted the House’s work to ban abortion and allow the permitless carry of handguns as conservative wins passed under his leadership.

Doesn’t any of that other stuff matter … or is the Texas GOP intent on protecting an attorney general who continually makes many Texans wince over the way he conducts himself?

International news, military news, national news

Attack NATO allies? Seriously?

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The former POTUS continues to spew garbage from his overfed pie hole. Consider this little gem.

He was campaigning the other day and said out loud that he would encourage Russian despot/dictator/dipshit Vladimir Putin to attack our NATO allies … namely those of them that haven’t been paying their “fair share” to protect Europe against Russian aggression.

Think of this for just a moment — that’s all it’ll take — to ponder the effect of such an action. It would trigger World War III, pure and simple. There’s a clause in the NATO treaty that declares that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all the nations. It would require a military response.

Is there any more reason to realize how utterly unfit for office this idiot is? That he must never again be allowed near the Oval Office?

This is a dangerous man who continues to reap support among most Republican Party primary voters. He and those who endorse his rants are certifiable lunatics.

national news

Belief turns to hope

It saddens me terribly to say what I am about to say … but my belief in Joe Biden’s re-election is turning into more of a hope.

President Biden clearly is the superior candidate who appears set to face the moron he defeated in 2020. This crap about his age and his mental acuity, though, appear to taking a toll on his standing.

And … what in the world is the apparent alternative? An idiot who’s just a couple of years younger and who, in my mind, presents an existential threat to our very democratic republic. What’s more, we also have the former POTUS making more than his share of blunderbuss statements, such as suggesting Joe Biden will lead us into “World War II.” Spoiler alert: We fought that one already — and won!

A special counsel looking into whether President Biden broke any laws when some White House documents showed up in his home has fanned the old-age flames with language that suggests that the president is an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

All of this — plus the president’s borderline bizarre reaction to it — is playing into Republicans’ hands.

I never thought Joe Biden’s tenure as president would be threatened by the guy he walloped four years ago.

Until now!

legal news, national news

Special counsel crosses ‘the line’

Robert Hur, appointed to look into whether President Biden broke any law when the FBI found documents in his home, did the president no favors with his decision against filing charges against him.

Oh, no. Instead, he hurled some unflattering labels at Joe Biden, calling him an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Indeed, his report to the public announcing his decision against seeking criminal indictments against Biden, contained several references to the president’s age and hinted that the POTUS might be falling a step or two behind.

Did the special counsel cross some vague line? I believe he did.

However, Joe Biden hasn’t helped himself any with his angry response to what Hur said in his report. He sounded petulant and appeared visibly angry at reporters peppering him with questions about what Hur had said.

Oh … my  … goodness.

To be fair, not all the criticism has come from Democrats.

USA Today reported: “I think it’s outrageous. Prosecutors are taught that the Department of Justice should speak through charges or it shouldn’t speak at all,” said Mark Lytle, a veteran Justice Department public corruption prosecutor who also served in the White House Counsel’s Office in the Trump administration.

I am not going to climb aboard the “Dude Has Lost It” hay wagon. I consider the president to be mentally fit and alert — and is fully capable of doing his job as our head of state/government and as our commander in chief.

Did the  special counsel cross the line in bashing Biden’s memory? Even some Republicans think so (msn.com)

However, he doesn’t buttress his public image by lashing out as he did the other day when Hur issued his 388-page report.

As for the special counsel, who was appointed by Biden’s immediate predecessor to be U.S. attorney for Maryland, he simply could have declared there was no criminal activity found … and left it at that.

I fear that the special counsel has poured fuel onto a presidential campaign fire that appears set to explode on its own.

national news

Missing the old GOP

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Never in a million years would I imagine saying what I am about to say … which is that what passes for today’s Republican Party makes me miss many GOP politicians who once played by a different set of rules.

What we have now competing for votes against Democrats is a party full of craven sycophants, loyal to a twice-impeached, four-times indicted and possibly soon to be felony-convicted former president.

I must stipulate that I do not consider myself to be a loyal Democrat. I am an independent fellow who’s cast over many years plenty of votes for Republicans; none of them have gone to GOP presidential candidates since I began voting in 1972.

If some of the former Republican presidential nominees were running today against the presumed GOP frontrunner in 2024, I surely would consider casting a vote for them. Mitt Romney, John McCain, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush come to mind immediately.

These men were of high honor and integrity. They knew government, understood its many complexities and worked with Democrats frequently to solve national problems.

Of the men I mentioned, I came closest in 1976 to voting for President Ford, who was running for election after having assumed the presidency in a time of national crisis. He was never elected VPOTUS or POTUS, but was the right man at the time to restore honor to a government torn asunder by what was the worst constitutional crisis in history. His pardon of President Nixon a month into his term was a deal-breaker … as I recall it; I since have changed my mind.

I just miss the era when Republicans weren’t so frozen in their loyalty to a single politician that they could suspend their rigidity to work out compromise solutions. I believe truly that is one of the tenets of good government.

Today, though, we see a party held captive by a megalomaniac. Senate Republicans hammered out an immigration deal that would strength border security. The former POTUS didn’t want President Biden to get any credit for solving the crisis, so he put the arm on senators to get ’em to back away. They did and to their everlasting shame, the border deal died a quick and unexpected death.

And why? Because Republicans in the Senate — and the House — lack the guts to do the right thing in spite of what their hero suggests.

I miss the old Republican Party.

entertainment news

Their music is timeless

Here’s a quickie quiz for you: How many popular music acts can you name where children generations removed from their time in the spotlight can remember every lyric to every song they seemingly ever recorded?

Time’s up. I can think of one: The Beatles.

OK. Maybe there are others.

Still, it makes today such a special day in popular culture history. Sixty years ago this evening, TV variety show host Ed Sullivan introduced John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr to America: Here are … The Beatles!

I was among the millions of youngsters who watched ’em that night in our living room.

I’ve been singing their songs ever since. So have my sons and maybe one day so will my granddaughter.

legal news, national news, political news

Thomas fails integrity test

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Clarence Thomas had the perfect opportunity today to do the right thing by recusing himself from a key hearing on the former POTUS’s standing in the 2024 campaign for president.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, didn’t recuse himself. He sat there with his colleagues and will take part in a ruling involving whether the ex-POTUS is eligible to run for office in accordance with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The conflict of interest is as clear as it gets.

Thomas’s wife, Virginia, is a member of the MAGA cult that embraces the rants of the 45th POTUS. She attended a gathering that developed on the D.C. Ellipse the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. The Former Guy exhorted the crowd — after Mrs. Thomas had left — to take back the government.

They stormed the Capitol and damn near overran the U.S. government in the process.

Colorado supreme court justices ruled that the ex-POTUS was ineligible to run for office because he took part in the effort to overthrow the government and gave ”aid and comfort” to those who stormed the Capitol.

Mrs. Thomas was part of the mob. She clearly had to have spoken to her husband, Justice Thomas, about the events of that day. In my view, Justice Thomas’s judicial integrity was compromised by his wife’s presence in the crowd.

He damn sure should have recused himself. But … he did no such thing.

Justice Thomas has ruled in favor of the ex-POTUS’s arguments already, even when he has been in the minority among justices. Of course, I have no hard knowledge that his decisions were influenced by his wife. Still, his participation in these legal matters just doesn’t pass the proverbial smell test.

Indeed, it stinks to high heaven … and beyond!

The court will decide soon whether the Colorado ruling will stand. My sense is that the court will side with the former POTUS and allow his name to return to that state’s ballot.

The very notion, though, of Justice Clarence Thomas taking part in this judicial matter simply makes me sick.

local news, political news

Any other kind?

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Driving around North Texas as I do damn near daily, I see street corners and highway intersections festooned with campaign signs promoting candidates for this or that public office.

It’s election time, after all.

One mantra is part of almost all the signs I see crowing for the benefits of Republicans seeking election this year.

They call themselves, almost to a person, “conservative Republican.”

I am compelled to ask myself: Is there any other kind of Republican?

Suppose you happen to be a Republican who, say, is pro-choice on abortion. You believe a woman should be able to determine — with advice and counsel from her partner, her doctor, her clergy — whether she wants to carry a pregnancy to birth. Does that wipe away any other conservative views you might have on, say, taxation, or gun-owners’ rights or government spending? What about same-sex marriage or whether schools should be allowed to display the Ten Commandments?

In this day of political rigidity, any variation from every conservative tenet labels one, apparently, a “woke” liberal, a squishy progressive who secretly believes in socialist economic policy.

When I see these “conservative Republican” captions on campaign signs, I am left to presume the candidate also adheres to the MAGA dogma promoted by the most recent POTUS. My presumption, therefore, allows me to believe that to be a “conservative Republicans” means you endorse the idiocy preached by the former POTUS.

I recall when a Republican president, Richard Nixon, endorsed the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Another Republican POTUS, George H.W. Bush, promoted the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1991. Still another Republican, President George W. Bush, invested more public money to fight HIV/AIDS than the rest of the world combined.

On the Democratic side, some of you might recall that U.S. Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson was a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War effort in the late 1960s. That didn’t make him less of a Democrat than any of his colleagues who opposed the war effort.

“Conservative Republican” these days looks for all the world to describe just about anyone willing to run on the GOP ticket for public office. In North Texas, the political playing field is swarming with them.