national news

Hunter Biden sticks it to ’em

Most of the time I would be inclined to chastise a public figure for refusing to answer a legally issued subpoena.

Not this time. The public figure of the moment is Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. A congressional committee had subpoenaed Hunter Biden, demanding that he testify in private to the committee.

Biden is having none of it. He wants instead to talk publicly to the panel, in front of the world, on the record so that everyone can hear his answers to the questions that will come.

I am forced to wonder: What is wrong with that? I can’t think of a reason why Hunter Biden would want to go behind closed doors. I can think of plenty of reasons for him to insist on public testimony.

First of all, he wants to expose House Republicans’ efforts to find any sort of crime that can connect him to his father. He has said that Daddy Biden derived “no financial benefit” from his son’s corporate work.

Second, he wants the committee to seek to explain publicly why it is conducting the hearing in the first place.

Third, Biden would take an oath to tell the whole truth. Failure to do so would result in punishment. He could take the oath, speak the truth and let the public draw its conclusions over who is telling the entire truth.

The Hunter Biden probe is headed for oblivion, in my humble view … right along with the Republicans’ impeachment inquiry aimed at finding impeachable dirt on his dad.

national news

Now it’s OK for ‘partisan impeachment’?

US House Speaker Mike Johnson is on record saying that “partisan impeachment” by Congress sets a dangerous precedent.

Oh, but wait. That was then. The here and now suggests that Johnson has changed his partisan mind. You see, the House yesterday voted along party lines to launch an impeachment inquiry to find something on which to charge President Biden.

Every Republican voted for the inquiry; every Democrat voted against it. The GOP caucus is looking for something. To date, they don’t even have a suspected “high crime and misdemeanor” to allege against Biden.

But, hey, who cares what the speaker once said? He must’ve been kidding when he called for a bipartisan impeachment. The inquiry, for sure, doesn’t necessarily guarantee an impeachment against President Biden.

My hunch tells me that if one comes, it’ll be along partisan lines.

Disgraceful.

local news, medical news, State news

Rewrite this cruel abortion law!

Have we become so wedded in Texas to the notion of following a hidebound ideology that we cannot consider the human impact from policies that come out of our Legislature?

Don’t answer that. I know the answer. I believe it is yes.

Kate Cox is now the official poster woman for a policy that needs a serious revisiting when the next Legislature convenes in January 2025. Cox is the Dallas woman who was pregnant with a child who was doomed to die days if not hours after being born. Cox needed an abortion. Why? Because doctors told her that giving birth could harm her reproductive future, that she might be unable to get pregnant again.

Cox could obtain that abortion in Texas because of a cruel law that makes the procedure illegal, except when a pregnancy endangers the mother’s life. No other exceptions are allowed. Cox got kicked around. A lower court granted her permission; the Texas Supreme Court nixed that ruling. Then it issued a permanent ruling that disallowed Cox’s desire to end her pregnancy.

She went out of state to receive the procedure.

This is an insane law. It needs to be rewritten to allow for the type of exception that Cox faced.

The so-called “pro-life” movement is heralding the SCOTEX decision. This movement has nothing to do with being pro-life. It is instead a “pro-birth” movement that put Kate Cox’s parental future in dire peril.

The Texas law — one of the nation’s most restrictive — makes abortion illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. Hell, many women don’t even know they’re pregnant so soon after conception! That didn’t matter to the numbskulls who forced this bill onto the books.

To worsen matters, they wrote a law that punishes doctors who perform an abortion with criminal penalties. And, of course, they didn’t allow for the type of circumstance that Kate Cox faced were she to give birth to a baby who had zero chance of survival.

Think for a moment about the heartbreak that awaited Cox and her husband and their family.

The next Texas Legislature has the power to improve a bad law by broadening the exceptions allowed for ending a pregnancy. If our legislators have a beating heart, they will act to lessen the chance of other women being trapped in the vise that could have delivered permanent reproductive damage to Kate Cox.

business news, economic news

Bidenomics: It’s working!

How is this going to play out? For the life of me I cannot fathom the current trend.

President Biden’s economy is rocking along. The nation added 199,000 jobs in November; joblessness is now at 3.5%; inflation registered a 3.1% uptick, which is far better the 9% it was registering earlier this year.

And yet …

Republicans keep yammering about the “sagging” economy. How Americans are unhappy with their lives’ economic trajectory.

President Biden and Congress approved the nation’s largest infrastructure bill in history. He got Congress to approve the Inflation Reduction Act. We’re investing in “green energy,” and the GOP calls that a bad thing.

It’s working, man! Yet the GOP keeps lying to us that it isn’t.

I am shaking my noggin. I do not get it!

International news, military news

We cannot hold Ukraine aid hostage

The United States has gone all in on aid to Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression. Therefore, it is imperative that congressional Republicans stop holding our aid to Ukraine hostage to security issues relating to our own border.

They are jeopardizing our standing as the world’s leading defender of democracy as it seeks in Ukraine to fend off the advances of the autocracy run by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.

Of course, that seems to matter little to the MAGA crowd that calls the cadence for Republicans to follow. The MAGA cultists have swallowed the poison blathered by Donald Trump who continues to extol the “virtues” of Putin’s alleged toughness.

What’s at stake is the possible involvement of NATO nations in a ground war with Russia if Putin decides to extend his territorial land grab to nations that belong to NATO. Were that to happen, then, well … all hell is going to break loose in eastern Europe.

Do we really want that to happen? Do we really want to send U.S. forces into battle with Russians, which would appear to be imperative if Russia attacks a NATO nation? We have that clause in the treaty that declares that an attack on one NATO state is an attack on the entire organization.

We cannot possibly in good conscience turn away from helping Ukraine defend its sovereignty against a foreign aggressor, which attacked Ukraine without provocation more than a year ago.

Putin is an evil despot whose misadventure in Ukraine must be stopped. Period!

That the GOP would seek to hold our assistance hostage to an unrelated issue is unconscionable on its face.

medical news, State news

They’re ignoring the ‘bosses’

To whom or what are our Texas legislators listening when it comes to abortion?

They do not heed the views of the bosses who elect them to public office. That’s for damn sure!

They have enacted an anti-abortion law that makes the practice of ending a pregnancy an illegal act. Meanwhile, a Dallas woman who faces possible permanent fertility damage if she is forced to give birth to a girl who is doomed to die is being kicked around like the political football she has become.

What is so damn troubling is that our lawmakers are ignoring the will of the people who put them into office. Texans, by a significant majority, favor women retaining the right to control their bodies and they oppose (mostly male) legislators making decisions they have no business making.

This is a representative democracy, last time I checked. Therefore, the people who represent the masses need to heed the will of their employers. That would be people such as the women in this state who are trapped by a law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, with damn near zero exceptions.

Kate Cox, the Dallas woman I mentioned, faces the heartache of giving birth to a baby who will die and, moreover, she well might be unable to give birth to another child in the future.

This is utter insanity.

local news

No stress Christmas

Every year I make same pledge, which is that I refuse to get caught in the swirl of pressure associated with “getting ready” for Christmas.

I cannot remember when I first made the pledge. It doesn’t matter when. Just know that I did and every year since then I have been nominally successful.

This Christmas presents some unique challenges for me. It will be the first holiday in 52 years without Kathy Anne. We lost her on Feb. 3. We struggled through the year in various stages of grief. Then on Dec. 1 we got another punch in the gut when we lost Toby the Puppy. My puppy was far more than a pet; he was my traveling companion, my bunk mate, my best pal.

So … we’re dealing with that loss, too.

However, I want to stipulate that Christmas has arrived and I am proceeding as pledged. I won’t let the stress associated with the holiday overtake me. Indeed, I am actually enjoying the act of shopping for the holiday. As I write this blog item, I am essentially done shopping.

Today is Dec. 10. I am effectively done with two whole weeks to go before Santa arrives. I am going to be like the proverbial cool breeze from this day forward.

I am going to hug my family and my friends. I am going to relish the joy they have in welcoming the season.

Oh, I am going to have a calendar-burning event in my back yard on New Year’s Eve. The fire pit awaits. I don’t have many 2023 calendars laying around the house, but those I have found are doomed to become nothing more than ash as I bid good fu**ing riddance to the worst year of my life.

What lies ahead for 2024? New adventures, surprises that present themselves. It’s a new year that will allow me to move forward with optimism and joy.

education news, local news, State news

Game over, Gov. Abbott

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hasn’t yet disclosed whether he plans to summon the Legislature for a fifth special session.

My hope is that he calls it a day, surrenders to the reality that his cherished school voucher program is DOA, that the House of Reps isn’t going to go along with his notion of robbing public education of money to benefit private schools.

He can wait until the 2025 Legislature to try again, even though it will remain a bad idea in two years.

Rural GOP lawmakers bristled at the notion of taking money from public schools. Why? Because the school system is the heart and soul of many of these communities. I endorse their resistance.

To that end, Gov. Abbott needs to call it quits on this notion.

Our Legislature comprises Texans who have day jobs when they’re not legislating. It’s expensive to the state to call them back. It’s also expensive to many of our lawmakers who need to put their working lives on hold.

Give it up, Gov. Abbott.

local news, medical news

‘Pro-birth’ policy must go

Kate Cox well might be forced to do something no sane human being should insist she do: give birth to a baby who is doomed to die.

The Dallas resident is trying to end a pregnancy she knows will end tragically. Her unborn daughter cannot live outside her mother’s womb for more than a few days. However, the abomination of a Texas law is requiring her to give birth because the law doesn’t cover the health of the infant as an exemption to its restrictions on abortion.

One court ruled in Cox’s favor. The Texas Supreme Court overruled the lower court and issued a temporary hold on the ruling.

The so-called “pro-life” movement has shown itself to be a “pro-birth” movement intent on making women who know their child will not survive go through the agony of giving birth only to watch their child die.

Here’s an idea for Gov. Greg Abbott to consider: Call a special session but instead of seeking to force private school vouchers on us, he should call legislators back to amend the law that well could force Kate Cox and other women to endure a needless heartache.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience