Monthly Archives: December 2024

national news

POTUS still has prerogative

You may choose to believe or disbelieve this notion — given my intense criticism of the current president of the United States — but I do believe that elections have consequences.

One of those consequences allows presidents to build their administrations with men and women with whom they feel comfortable.

However, basic qualifications for a high-level Cabinet post must be included in whomever gets the nod from a president. That brings me to a central point of this blog post, which is that several of Donald Trump’s choices lack any experience pertinent to the job to which they have been chosen by the POTUS.

Pete Hegseth has never run anything in his life, let alone a massive bureaucracy like the Pentagon; RFK Jr. has zero experience administrating public health policy; Tulsi Gabbard has no experience in espionage; Kash Patel wants to destroy the FBI, an agency Trump has selected him to run.

President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas in 1991 to succeed Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. He called Judge Thomas “the most qualified” man in America to succeed the nation’s first Black SCOTUS justice. I disagreed with his description of Thomas, but I wrote then that he was the president and he deserved to nominate who he wanted. Thomas at least was qualified in the strictest sense of the word to serve.

Trump is including a cast of clowns to join his administration. Yeah, elections have consequences, but they appear to be biting back on the man who claims a “mandate” that enables him to pick a team of losers.

That is not how anyone ever should define “good government.”

national security

Trump brings chaos back to White House

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Jeb Bush perhaps had the most apt description of Donald Trump’s candidacy back when the two men competed against each other for the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination.

Bush, the former Florida governor, said Trump would be the “chaos president” if elected. Well, he was elected that year and by golly, he brought chaos into the Oval Office with him.

Here’s some cheery news for those who voted for him the second time around: The chaos hasn’t gone away, as there will be plenty more of it when he takes office on Jan. 20.

Spoiler alert … I was not among those who voted for Trump either time, but you knew that already. Allow me to say, “I told you as well that this would happen.” 

An attorney general nominee already has backed out amid a tidal wave of criticism over his (lack of) qualifications for the job. The defense secretary-designate is facing another storm of criticism, as is the proposed health and human services secretary, the next director of the national intelligence and the FBI director-designate.

Chaos, anyone? Anyone?

Trump keeps boasting of his intelligence. How he plans to recruit the “best people” to serve in his administration. He is recruiting nincompoops to key national security posts. I will concede that not all of his picks fall into that category, but damn!

What the hell is this guy thinking when he chooses a sworn anti-vaxxer to serve as HHS head, a guy who wants to destroy the FBI while serving as its director, an accused sexual assailant and a right-wing TV blowhard to run the Pentagon, and someone who sympathizes with an accused war criminal as DNI.

I thought we were better than to elect someone such as this guy. I guess I was mistaken.

State news

Texas politics: work in progress

I get asked fairly frequently how I like living in Texas, given that I am not a native Texan, but one who has lived here for most of my life.

The question usually is steeped in politics, in that the state has gone through a dramatic transformation over the past 40 or so years from being strongly Democratic to even stronger Republican.

My answer seeks to split the difference. “My wife and I carved out a wonderful life in Texas when we moved here in 1984,” I usually say. “Our sons came of age here, I had a wonderful career in journalism, and we got to travel,” I often add.

Oh, but what about the wacky political climate? the questioner might ask. “It hasn’t affected me directly,” I would say.

The state of politics in Texas at this moment clearly isn’t what I would prefer. The Republican stranglehold on every elected statewide office is a grim reminder — to me, at least — that progressive politics is being pushed aside.

I get asked about the state’s grotesque anti-abortion law. No one in my immediate family at this moment is a candidate for that kind of decision. I would dread having to deal with such a family crisis were one to arise, but at this time the issue remains a purely political matter.

I am a sort of spectator these days as the state grapples with how to strengthen the GOP vise-grip on public policy. I am able to comment on these matters using this blog. I grow frustrated at times believing that no one in power takes my critiques seriously. I’ll keep using this forum of mine to pound away when the needs arise.

Therefore, I continue to enjoy my life in Texas. We moved here nearly 41 years ago. I am about to turn 75. That makes me a Texan, even though I cannot plaster a “Native Texan” bumper sticker on my pickup.

But … I do own a truck. That has to count for something.

legal news

Wray quits FBI, bring on the goons!

FBI director Christopher Wray’s resignation from his supposedly “non-political” post signals most clearly — as if we needed any more signals — what Donald Trump intends to do to the nation’s top police agency.

He intends to turn it into a cudgel with which he will beat his political foes into submission.

Wray’s resignation, which takes effect on President Biden’s last day in office, is a clear indication that Trump — who selected Wray for the FBI after he fired James Comey in 2017 — has no intention of following the law.

Comey got the boot because he wouldn’t profess blind loyalty to Trump. Wray pursued his job with the same dedication to the rule of law as other FBI leaders have done. The deal breaker for Trump was when Wray asked the former president to turn over classified documents he had taken from the White House and when Trump refused, Wray sought a court order to seize the documents at Mar-a-Lago. Again, he followed the law.

The nimrod Trump wants to take over as FBI boss, Kash Patel, has declared his intention to sic the FBI on Trump’s political foes. He has said he wants to close the Hoover FBI Building and turn it into a museum of the Deep State.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a dark day in the transition from one administration to the next one. However, it is appearing that the next one is shaping precisely as the new president said it would.

Shame on us.

national security

How can Gabbard serve as DNI? She cannot!

How in the name of all that is holy and sacred can Donald Trump select a former Hawaii congresswoman who has zero intelligence background to be director of national intelligence?

Oh, wait! She’s a loyal Trumpkin. That’s all the next POTUS needs.

Tulsi Gabbard has zero business being considered for DNI. She was an obscure congresswoman. She was a Democrat once. Then she flipped to the Republican Party.

Events in Syria have called Gabbard’s many shortcomings into sharp focus. She once called former Syrian murderer Bashar al Assad a minor player. She met with the madman not long before he was deposed by rebels. Assad is gone from power, to the relief of millions of Syrians he terrorized during his reign.

Gabbard also is pals with Vladimir Putin, the thug/goon/tyrant in Moscow.

This is the individual Donald Trump wants to entrust our national security secrets? Give me a fu**ing break!

I am astonished way beyond belief at what Trump is seeking to do to our security apparatus. He distrusts our intelligence gatherers, which he all but admitted in that hideous 2018 presser in Helsinki.

My hope now is that Republicans in the U.S. Senate who will have to confirm this moron as DNI will come to their senses and reject her nomination out of hand.

Uncategorized

Musk and the Blowhard … what gives?

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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy make quite a duo as they take up their undefined — or ill-defined — posts in the new presidential administration that is taking shape.

Musk is the richest man in the world. Ramaswamy is a loudmouth who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against the guy who won it all in 2024. They now form what is called the Department of Governmental Efficiency.

They want to slash trillions of dollars from the federal budget. They want to eliminate entire Cabinet offices. They have Donald Trump’s ear.

Several huge problems stand in their way. One is the Constitution. The nation’s governing document states clearly that Congress is in charge of budgeting. It’s been said over many years that “the president proposes, but the Congress disposes” of all budget items. That won’t change, no matter who is president.

Another obstacle that Musk and the Blowhard need to confront are the huge egos of the 535 men and women who serve in the legislative branch of our government. They all represent states and congressional districts with specific needs and they depend on their senators and House members to deliver the goods to the folks back home. They aren’t going to shed their constitutional authority just because a couple of know-it-alls order them to do it.

I keep hearing all this grand talk about what Musk and Ramaswamy will do cut government waste. Neither of these clowns — not even the guy with the bottomless pockets — can cut a damn thing without congressional approval.

Oh, and then we have the president. This fellow is the most mercurial, unpredictable, maddening individual ever to occupy this office. He often acts on the last thing someone tells him before decision time arrives.

The rich guy and the loudmouth must prepare themselves for the possibility that every grand idea they propose could get shot down in flames by the numbskull who sees himself as monarch rather than servant.

State news

Dade Phelan becomes a casualty

Dade Phelan became speaker of the Texas House of Representatives at what could be argued as the worst time possible … if you’re a moderate Republican.

Phelan this past weekend backed out of his bid for a third term as speaker, apparently counting the votes among his GOP caucus and realizing he was toast.

It’s a shame for Texas Republicans, for the state in general and for the cause of good government.

Phelan a Republican from Beaumont, fought the MAGA cultists who now are claiming a victory in the fight to continue Texas’s headlong lurch to the right. I don’t know who will succeed Phelan as speaker; I should really care about it … but I don’t.

I do know that whoever it is will continue the MAGA agenda aimed at discriminating against gay and transgender Texans. The next speaker no doubt will continue to push for strengthening Texas’s already harsh ban on abortions. And, yes, there will be border security issues to discuss and to enact.

Phelan’s worst sin appears to be his insistence that the “will of the House” work its way toward impeaching Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The MAGA goons called that a betrayal of their agenda. Not that it mattered, as Paxton was cleared of alleged misconduct by a Texas Senate that wanted to keep the fire-breather in office.

I am sorry to see Dade Phelan surrender to the MAGA crowd. He served with honor as speaker. I cannot really blame him, though, for turning his back on a battle he couldn’t possibly win in this polarized and divisive climate.

environmental news

Loving the recycling life

I want to offer a big-league shout out to communities — such as Princeton, Texas — that embrace the idea of recycling items that otherwise would end up in a landfill.

When my bride and I moved to Princeton in early 2019, we came here purely to be nearer to our granddaughter and her parents. We were unaware when we bought our house that recycling would become such an important part of our daily lives.

We came here from a community in the Texas Panhandle that tried to promote recycling but then gave up on it. Why? Because, I was told, residents of Amarillo just weren’t into it, They were tossing food waste and other non-recyclable trash into the recycling bins.

We have curbside recycling in Princeton. I am proud to declare that our recycling bin contains more items to be repurposed than our trash bin. The disposal company picks up recyclables every other week; the trash heads for the dump each week.

I have spoken a few times over the years with a fellow who handles municipal waste matters for the company that serves Princeton. He has told me he believes recycling throughout the network of communities served has reduced landfill deposits by more than 30%. That tells me the residents of North Texas have embraced the idea of filling up their recycling bins with material that can be repurposed. It saves our Planet Earth’s valuable space. It conserves fossil fuels. It protects the only planet we can call home.

I am pleased and proud to be part of a community that embraces the idea of recycling. My neighbors and I want our planet to survive.

Sports news

Allen makes it to baseball’s HoF

Wherever he is, a former colleague of mine, the late Kenton Brooks, no doubt is smiling today as the word came out that a former baseball bad boy Dick Allen has been inducted into MLB’s Hall of Fame.

You see, Brooks — with whom I worked while at the Beaumont Enterprise — was an avid, fervent, dedicated fan of Dick Allen. He never could accept that Allen had been snubbed for induction into the Hall of Fame.  Brooks succumbed to the COVID virus a couple of years ago.

Allen came to the Bigs as Richie Allen. He began his big-league career in Philadelphia, where he led the Phillies in many hitting categories. He was known as a powerful slugger who swung a heavier-than-normal bat.

The guy could hit, not just home runs but for an average that routinely topped .300 for a season. He moved around a lot during his years in the Bigs. He played for the LA Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago White Sox, the Oakland A’s.

He led the American league in home runs twice, in 1972 and in 1974; he also was named the AL’s most valuable player in 1972.

Allen was a tempestuous fellow, getting into a locker room brawl one year with a teammate. I don’t recall the circumstances, or who started it. My hunch is that Allen finished the fight. He battled with managers, team owners and teammates fairly routinely.

As I look back on his career, I am going to side with my old pal Kenton in applauding the old-timer’s committee for bringing a certifiable force of nature into the Hall of Fame.

International news

Good riddance, Mr. Despot

It’s not too often we can cheer news from the Mideast but today is one of those rare days.

Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad’s government has been toppled and the dictator has received asylum in Russia. Armed rebels managed to run this madman out of the country.

I consider this reason to cheer the news. Assad is a bad guy. One of the worst guys on Earth. He has been indicted as a war criminal because of the immense pain he inflicted on his people. The man needs to be delivered to the justice system.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen, given that he is living now in Russia, home to another war criminal, thug/goon/killer Vladimir Putin.

Indeed, the fighting in Syria likely won’t end soon. Without Assad, the pro-government forces have no one for whom to fight … and die!

So, we have reason to cheer some news out of a region that has ripped to pieces by the ravages of war.