State news

Hoping our memories are long regarding Dan Patrick

Dan Patrick’s name won’t be on the ballot until 2022, when his term as Texas lieutenant governor is up for election.

I am running out of epithets to hang next to this clown.

I’ll stick with loudmouth for the moment, given that before he became a politician he had some kind of radio show. He is glib, quick with the quip and is utterly, stupidly insensitive to the plight of others.

I want him gone from the Texas political landscape.

The man whose job is to preside over the Texas Senate said recently that the nation’s leading epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” when referencing how Texas has responded to the COVID-19 crisis that is sweeping across the state. Patrick said Fauci has been “wrong” across the board, so he no longer will listen to him.

Prior to that Patrick said old folks ought to be able to surrender their lives if it meant restarting the state economy, which had been shut down because of the initial wave of infections created by the global pandemic.

This idiot’s Texas political career has been fraught with moronic statements, legislation and policies.

He serves as governor when the actual governor is out of the state. Frankly, Patrick gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Of course, he won’t be “primaried” by Republicans because the hard-core GOP base loves the guy. To my way of thinking I am not yet sure Texas is ready to elect a Democrat to the state’s second-leading political post.

I guess this is my way of suggesting we might be stuck with this nimrod for as long he chooses to sit in the lieutenant governor’s office. Which means I am left only to gripe about him in this blog and hope that something sticks down the road.

Or, perhaps our memories will retain the idiocy of what he has said about the pandemic and other matters if and when he decides to run for his current or another public office.

medical news

Another run on TP on tap

One of the real-time realities of today is that I don’t get out much, meaning that I go to the supermarket only when I really need to buy something.

So I am a bit slow on the uptake, I suppose, when I notice something that apparently has been trending over the course of some time.

Such as the supply of toilet paper on the shelves.

You’ll recall I am sure when the pandemic first erupted we were told to stock up on certain household necessities. TP was one of them.

We weren’t in danger of running out of it in our home, but we did stock up when they appeared at our Princeton, Texas, neighborhood supermarket.

Then the supplies held up. No one felt the need to, um, fill their closets with this essential commodity.

Until now. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pulled back on his reopening strategy. We’re now being ordered to wear masks in public. We are limiting gathering sizes. Abbott is imploring us to maintain “social distancing” measures. I get all that, man.

He didn’t say anything about stocking up on essential items. Not to worry about that, though. We found out during the first shutdown what we needed to do.

TP once again is in short supply.

Hey, you big drug firms … hurry up with that vaccine. Will ya?

national news

Hoping our national nightmare ends in four months

President Gerald Ford told us our “long national nightmare” ended the moment in August 1974 when his predecessor resigned from office and jetted off to oblivion.

I am hoping for a return of a similar moment when we get the ballots counted in November. My sincere hope is that Joseph R. Biden Jr. gets many more votes than Donald J. Trump Sr., that he wins a sufficient number of Electoral College votes to be elected president and that the incumbent will start packing up his belongings and jet off somewhere far away from the White House.

The process could get cumbersome if Trump decides to declare the election is “rigged” or that a foreign power “stole” it from the people of this country. The irony of such a declaration would be remarkable, to be sure, given what happened in 2016 when the Russians attacked our electoral system. Trump collected fewer actual votes than Hillary Clinton but garnered enough electoral votes to become president.

It’s been a disastrous run ever since. Trump can boast, brag and bloviate all he wants about what a “fantastic” job he’s done. He hasn’t. He has made a mess of our international alliances, torched every possible norm associated with the presidency, alienated the nation from the rest of the world and behaved like the first-class boor we all knew he was when he declared his candidacy.

There’s far more at stake than just the presidency. I want to see the Senate change hands, from Republican to Democratic control. I want to see a newly elected president work with lawmakers of both parties, something Biden has been able to do while serving in the Senate and then for two terms as vice president.

You see, we have received a real-time lesson in how the presidency is far too big a responsibility for someone who requires on-the-job training. What’s more, that someone at least needs to understand the necessity of learning about history, about government and about the limitations of power inherent in the office he inherited. Donald Trump has no interest in any of that. None!

I want a return to good government. Not necessarily big government. Just a government that works.

I hope we get it in just a little less than four months from now. I don’t want to wish my life away, but I also hope that time between now and Election Day goes quickly. I am weary of the chaos.

local news, medical news

Face mask order forces me to acquire new habits

It has taken an order from the Texas governor to get me to step it up with this “new normal” way of doing things.

I don’t begrudge Greg Abbott for issuing the order, even though I do endorse the notion that he was a bit late in declaring it. That said, I won’t dwell on its timeliness.

Abbott has told us to wear masks when we venture to public places if we live in counties with 20 or more coronavirus infections. Well, in Collin County we, um, are well past that “magic number.”

My wife has been much better about complying with voluntary new normal procedures than I have been. I guess it took the order from Gov. Abbott to get me to pay attention. He issued it and I am heeding it to the letter.

To be sure, I wish we didn’t have to wear these masks. It’s awfully hot out there and the masks make me sweat. However, the cost of not wearing one — in addition to maintaining that “social distance” thing — is too serious to ignore.

Even though I don’t like wearing the masks, I dislike getting sick even more. I seriously dislike the notion of possibly dying from the illness known as COVID-19. More to the point than even that, I shudder at the thought of my family members being sickened by the virus. They know who they are and I am imploring all of them to follow the rules … to the letter.

If it takes a government order to keep my loved ones and me healthy, then I’m all in. You will not hear me gripe about surrendering my “civil liberties” or being told how to behave.

The alternative to all of that could be pretty damn grim … and I am unwilling to pay that price.

national news

‘Monuments’ to traitors need to come down

Donald Trump had a chance to offer words of unity, of common purpose, of a common love of country to a nation in the midst of crises.

He didn’t deliver.

Instead, he stoked racial animosity and sought once more to divide us between those those who want Trump re-elected and those of us who want someone else to become president of the United States.

Trump stood before Mount Rushmore and delivered an Independence Day speech full of the red meat his base eats up. He stood behind the statues and other monuments to Confederate generals, proclaiming they are part of our nation’s history. Sure they are, but it’s a history that shouldn’t be saluted and honored.

Donald Trump cannot unite a nation he was elected to lead. He is incapable of delivering on the unity theme even while we are celebrating the creation of this extraordinary nation we all love.

Yes, I believe Donald Trump loves the nation, but he wants it to be something it cannot be ever again. We are a land in the midst of fundamental change. Trump doesn’t acknowledge the change in our racial and ethnic composition. He is fighting back against that change and in the process is managing to alienate Americans against each other.

This is the how he chose to celebrate our nation’s independence? Sadly, yes.

He barely mentioned the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Uh, Mr. President, that’s a big deal. It has been all over the news of late. Tens of thousands of Americans have died and we’re being sickened at an increasing rate every single day. A wartime president, which Trump calls himself, must recognize the gravity of the crisis. This guy cannot or will not do it.

Sigh ...

An election is on the horizon. I am hoping with extreme caution that we can change our course and begin a new journey toward a common goal. It has been abundantly clear from the beginning of Donald Trump’s tenure as president that he is unable or unwilling to lead us in that direction.

military news

Whether to salute …

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There they are, the commander in chief and the first lady, standing for the playing of the National Anthem.

Donald J. Trump is offering a hand salute, which I am sure is going to prompt some discussion about whether it is appropriate for a president who never served in the military to do such a thing.

I’ll weigh in with this: There is no rule against it, which means it is up to individual presidents to decide whether to salute while playing the Anthem. I guess Trump thinks it’s OK. Fine.

It has been established that it’s all right for veterans to salute while they play the Anthem. I choose instead to put my hand over my heart; I am just not comfortable saluting the flag while standing in civilian clothes. This is just me, but I find the sight of a civilian saluting the flag to be off-putting. It’s as if the individual who salutes the flag is trying to call attention to himself or herself, rather than granting full attention to the flag we honor and cherish.

I suppose that would apply to presidents of the United States.

Barack Obama would return a salute when service personnel saluted him; President Obama never served in the military. George W. Bush did the same thing; he did serve in the Air Force Reserve. Same applies to Bill Clinton, who also didn’t serve in the military. All of those men, though, place their hands over their hearts while standing for the National Anthem.

President Bush 41 would salute occasionally. President Reagan would return the salute. Neither of those men, though, would stand while saluting as the Anthem was played.

I am not going to belabor the point, except to say that Donald Trump’s role as commander in chief grants him the opportunity to salute while they play the Anthem. I get, too, that not all veterans agree with his decision to do so.

I suppose I am one of them … but it’s a small thing. The current president’s desire to make a spectacle of himself in that context only highlights the Vietnam War draft-dodging chapter in his life that so many of us find objectionable.

medical news

Public health goes partisan

Did you ever think an issue concerning public health would cross into the realm of partisan politics?

If you answered “no,” then I venture to presume you’re in good company. Neither did I, nor I am reckoning did many of the nation’s public health or leading political figures.

But … here we are.

Governors around the country are pulling back on their reopening measures in the wake of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in their states. They have empowered local officials to enact stricter regulations for citizens to follow.

The reaction from many Americans has been jaw-dropping. I see news reports of residents yammering about losing their rights as citizens, how the government has become tyrannical in their mandates, orders and edicts.

One dipsh** in Florida said that he has the right to act using his own “intelligence” in response to the pandemic. Oh, really? That means he is “intelligent” enough to infect his neighbors, his family members and even total strangers if he decides against wearing a mask or refuses to maintain social distancing.

The term “public health” by definition means we are dealing with matters that involve everyone. The public. Strangers. Our neighbors.

We are in the midst of a public health crisis. When a governor issues an order to wear a mask, he or she is doing so to mitigate the damage being done by the disease the nation is fighting to control and to eliminate.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has joined the growing chorus of governors to issue stricter rules and regulations. He has been getting beaten up over the tardiness of his order. I won’t go there, except to say I am glad he has awakened to the crisis and has broken away from the policies being touted by other Republican politicians, starting with Donald Trump. 

Public health requires everyone to climb aboard the same wagon, or so one would have presumed. Then again, we live in the most polarized moment in recent memory. If only we could set aside our partisan differences in pursuit of a sound public health policy.

national news

Trump concocting a weird plan to stay in office?

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I used to say of a man known in the Texas Panhandle as one of the region’s weirdest characters — the late Stanley Marsh 3 — that there was nothing beyond the realm of possibility where it concerned Stanley, that he was capable of doing practically anything.

I am left these days to think of Donald Trump in much the same way, that there is not a single thing beyond his quest to hold onto power, even if he were to lose an election.

A former Colorado U.S. senator has posited a notion that Trump might be concocting a stay-in-office plan even if he loses the election this November to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Former Sen. Tim Wirth thinks Trump well might declare the election a fraud, rigged, fixed. That China interfered in order to defeat him. Thus, he would hold up the transition to a President-elect Biden. He could send the case to the Supreme Court. He would stall the election until Dec. 14, when the Electoral College would vote on who takes the oath of office in January 2021.

Were the court to toss out the election results, the matter would go to the House of Representatives, which then could — under the Constitution’s rules governing such a selection process — actually keep Trump in office for another four years.

Scary, yes? Damn right it is! It’s also not beyond the realm of the possible, given Trump’s addiction to power.

Oh, how I hope none of that takes place. However, with this narcissistic megalomaniac, anything is possible.

national news

Wishing it away won’t do the job

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I’ll be brief, Mr. President.

I just want to remind you — as if you should even need reminding — that wishing the COVID-19 pandemic will disappear won’t make it happen.

Nothing will make the pandemic vanish all by itself. We need presidential leadership that sends consistent messages to the people in the land. We need to develop a vaccine. We need to ensure that we test Americans who worry about catching the killer virus.

We need a whole lot more from you than we’re getting.

Most of all we need to hear a whole lot less of the mindless, brainless happy talk that foments the Big Lie about what a fantastic job your administration is doing.

Enough of the bullsh**, Mr. President!

International news, national news, political news

Putin isn’t on the ballot, however…

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Vladimir Putin just won’t go away.

The Russian president launched a campaign in 2016 — at the invitation of Donald Trump — to interfere in our presidential election. His aim was to disrupt our political discourse, to sow seeds of suspicion. He succeeded infamously.

Donald Trump benefitted from the Russian interference. The U.S. president hasn’t yet been willing to acknowledge the Russian dictator’s role in that political heist.

Now he’s at it again. He is injecting himself into the 2020 election, but in ways none of us saw coming.

We have these reports of Russians placing bounties on the lives of Americans fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Trump is dismissing the media reporting. He calls it a hoax. He is angry at the reporting, but is silent about the subject of that reporting.

There he is, Vladimir Putin is injecting himself into the American political process. He isn’t on the ballot, but his presence on our political landscape seems to all but guarantee that part of our voters’ calculation on for whom we cast our ballots will include Vladimir Putin.

To be clear, my mind is made up. Still, Putin’s presence in our political discourse is maddening. He has wormed and wiggled his way into our processes. Putin can declare “mission accomplished” from his 2016 electoral interference. It’s not enough, though, for Putin merely to win that first round.

He is going to interfere yet again this year, along perhaps with China or Ukraine or any other nation that has an axe to grind with the U.S. political system.

To be clear, it is confusing in the extreme for me to grasp how the Russian bounty story is going to benefit Donald Trump. To that end, Putin’s continuing presence in our political process sends a seriously mixed message.

Still, the Russian brute is there. He is part of our political discussion.

If only he would just disappear. Forever.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience