military news

Tuberville: Sen. Dumbass

Tommy Tuberville has distinguished himself in a most unflattering fashion, by establishing his place as the dumbest member of the United States Senate.

The Alabama Republican has finally — finally! — begun drawing the ire of his GOP colleagues over his insane, foolish and patently stupid campaign to use the military as a forum to express his strong views against abortion.

Because Senate rules allow it, Tuberville has single-handedly blocked the promotions of hundreds of senior military officers. They include the installation of the Marine Corps commandant as well as other general-grade and field-grade officers throughout the military.

Now we are hearing from a handful of GOP senators who say that “enough is enough.”

Tuberville dislikes the military’s willingness to provide abortion counseling for military personnel who might want to terminate a pregnancy. That’s a non-starter for Tuberville, who is so adamantly opposed to abortion that he is willing to compromise our nation’s military preparedness just to make a political point.

Sen. Dumbass must end this foolishness. The Senate needs to revoke the rule that empowers this stupid behavior and imperils the readiness of the greatest military powerhouse in world history.

I accept his opposition to abortion. But to hold the military high command hostage to his opposition is (a) stupid politics, (b) dangerous to our national security and (c) makes zero sense … given all the other political options that Dumbass can exercise if he wants to end abortion.

national news

GOP pols wising up?

Can it be that the Republican congressional caucus is wising up to the “Big Lie” and the party’s refusal to acknowledge the truth?

Two key GOP House members today announced their intention to step down when their current terms expire at the end of 2024: Ken Buck of Colorado and Kay Granger from over yonder in Fort Worth.

Buck’s announcement contained a criticism of GOP officeholders who continue to adhere to the Big Lie, that the 2020 election was stolen and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. He said the GOP’s refusal to concede that President Biden is the real deal has inhibited its ability to advance its legislative agenda.

He’s had enough, Buck said.

Granger said it is time for new leaders to emerge. She is 80 years old and has been a force among GOP House members.

The party needs to be revived, to return to its former self as a serious political organization, not a cult wedded to the dictatorial fantasies of a lying, cheating, philandering business mogul.

Buck and Granger might not signal that the tide is turning against the cult leader. Then again … they might perhaps will trigger more statements of indignation against those who foment the Big Lie.

local news

Trek finds new traction

My bride once asked me — while we attended the 10-year reunion of my Portland, Ore., high school class — why I wasn’t reuniting with the female classmates gathered at a city park where we all met.

My answer to Kathy Anne: I was “painfully shy” as a teenager. I was uncomfortable talking to girls, I told her. Less than four years after graduating from high school, the sensational young woman whom I would marry broke me of my shyness … if you know what I mean.

I recently declared my intention to return to the world “social interaction” since losing my dear bride to cancer this past February. I am a lot more socially skilled than I was a teenager. I like talking to “girls” these days and if you’ll pardon my candor, I am pretty good at it.

I still get a bit jittery at the prospect of asking someone on a date. I still don’t always say the correct thing at precisely the correct moment.

I also realize something else. I am nearly 74 years of age. Thus, time is not my ally. I figure that if I am going to find someone with whom I want to spend copious amounts of time in my final years on Earth, I had better get busy.

Thus, my journey through the post-mortem grief of losing the love of my life is getting brighter seemingly each day. It isn’t quite so dark these days along the path I have been walking since I bid farewell to my beloved Kathy Anne.

My destination still is to be determined. As I shake off the shyness that inhibited me as a youth, I know I’ll find that place sooner rather than later.

local news

Take it back … from whom?

Understanding that I live near the heart of Donald Trump Country, I still was taken aback today at the sight of a pickup festooned with Trump stickers with assorted slogans.

One of them had a “Trump 2024” insignia emblazoned with the phrase, “Take it back.”

My first thought? From whom do we want to retrieve the country? From an administration that has experienced the greatest job growth in history? From a president who has firmed up our international alliances against blatant aggression in Ukraine? From a government that seeks to foment democracy over autocracy?

These all speak to the kind of demagogic lies that the MAGA crowd keeps blustering, that the country somehow has been hijacked by those who want to obey the rule of law, who want to restore “regular order” in our legislative process, who do the bidding of Americans and not the moneyed special interests.

What slays me, too, is that the owner of the pickup reportedly is a proud Marine and yet Donald Trump has called those of us who have worn our country’s military uniform “suckers” and “losers.”

What a pair of chumps … Donald Trump and his devoted North Texas Marine.

local news, medical news

Puppy Tales, Part 105: What a champ!

Toby the Puppy has had quite a year, to be sure. He lost his Mommy to cancer in February and has mourned Kathy Anne’s passing along with the rest of the family.

That wasn’t the end of it for him, though. He and I headed east for few days this past summer. My puppy came down with a urinary tract infection, got it treated initially in North Carolina, then we got home to get some disturbing news.

Toby the Puppy was diagnosed with cancer. It has infected one of his kidneys, his prostate gland and his bladder.

Since then, though, I am happy to report some relatively good news.

Toby the Puppy finished his radiation treatment sequence. The doc tells me his tumor “has not grown. It looks the same.” I accept that as good news. The clinic staff hasn’t discussed “prognosis” with me. Indeed, I am not yet prepared to have that discussion.

I am prepared to look positively toward the immediate future with Toby the Puppy standing with me as we continue our journey forward to a new life.

I cannot predict how or when his current challenge will end. The doc tells me the radiation and the chemo treatment that will follow are both proven to be effective in fighting the disease he has. He talks about “controlling” the mass they found, which I interpret to mean extending my puppy’s life.

He is comfortable. Toby is still full of piddle and vinegar. He is as sweet as he always has been since the moment he joined our family in the summer of 2014.

He is my champion … and he is making Kathy Anne proud, too.

national news

Pence drops out … wow!

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to end his 2024 presidential campaign speaks loudly about the state of affairs within what passes for today’s Republican Party.

Think for a moment about this. Of all the members of the previous administration, damn few of them have stood out as believing that their oaths of office were to the Constitution, not to the individual who led the government for four years from 2017 until 2021.

Pence was one of those who stood for the rule of law when Donald Trump and others sought to coerce him into overturning the results of the 2020 election. Pence said he had no authority to do anything other than what he did, which was to certify the election results and declare that Joe Biden had been elected president of the United States.

It is true, in my view, that Pence did little else of note during his term as VP.  But his refusal to disobey the law and the Constitution stands out.

And it cost him among Republican presidential primary voters, as they appear wedded to the propaganda peddled by the former POTUS.

local news

Far-right PAC sullies race

As if voters of a North Texas legislative district need an extra push to elect a far-right winger to the state House of Representatives.

But, by gum, that’s what is happening in the House District 2 campaign to find a successor to a right-wing extremist legislator whom the House expelled after he was caught having sex with an underage staffer in Austin.

Former state Rep. Bryan Slaton of Royse City got the boot from the Legislature. Voters in HD 2 are choosing someone to succeed him. Enter onto the stage Defend Texas Liberty, a far-right PAC whose former leader, Nick Fuentes, was seen in the company of a white supremacist.

Defend Texas Liberty is sinking its talons into the race by pumping cash into the campaign of Brent Money. The PAC also reportedly has tossed money at Jill Dutton, Money’s major Republican foe.

The Texas Tribune reports: “Nick Fuentes states openly that he ‘will destroy the GOP,’” Dutton campaign spokesperson Matt Brownfield said in a statement. “In that respect, he shares the same objective as Defend Texas Liberty PAC, who has spent millions of dollars attacking conservative Republicans like Jill Dutton and Greg Abbott. 

You may count me as one American patriot who simply detests these far-right extremists. They ought to take their poison elsewhere and not infect so many of Texas’s already conservative legislative districts. House District 2 voters seemingly would need little to push them to the far-right fringes of political thought.

Defend Texas Liberty gets involved in race to replace Bryan Slaton | The Texas Tribune

Since the focus of Defend Texas Liberty centers on Money and Dutton, perhaps four other hopefuls can sneak their way to the front the pack. The other Republicans in the contest are Heath Hyde, Doug Roszhart and Krista Schild. Democrat, Kirsten Washington, is also running.

Hey, one can hope.

military news

Firepower galore

Just how much firepower has the U.S. Navy assembled off the coast of Israel to aid that country in its fight against the terrorist cabal called Hamas?

The skipper of a nuclear-powered aircraft once told a visiting party off the California coast — of which I was a member — the amount of juice contained in a single carrier battle group.

Navy Capt. John Payne commanded the USS Carl Vinson in the early 1990s when I and several others joined the late U.S. Rep. Charles Wilson for a factfinding tour of the ship. Wilson, an East Texas Democrat, wanted to tour the Vinson and express his unwavering support for the men and women who defend this country from its enemy.

Payne told us that a single battle group — comprising an aircraft carrier, several cruisers, frigates, destroyers, submarines — contains more “explosive firepower” than all the bombs dropped in all the theaters of operation during World War II, which ran from 1939 until 1945.

The Navy has deployed two such battle groups: the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

I cannot fathom either of these groups firing all its ordnance on targets inside Gaza. Still, I trust the terrorists know the dire peril they face if they refuse to cease their hideous acts against civilians.

national news

Hope dashed with speaker pick

My hope all along during the House speaker kerfuffle was that the competing wings within the Republican Party could find a compromise candidate, someone who would pledge to work with all the members of the House.

That’s not what they got in Speaker Mike Johnson. Oh, no. They got a MAGA acolyte who wants to ban abortion nationwide, who continues to challenge the legitimacy of President Biden’s election in 2020, who questions whether we should continue to fund Ukraine’s battle for independence against the Russian aggressors and who seemingly sides with those who want to shut down the government.

The MAGA clowns turned on the lights in the back of the House chamber and found the congressional newbie who fits their description of the near-perfect House speaker.

What a shame. And a sham!

I heard MAGA Mike declare upon taking the oath that he would be the speaker for the entire legislative chamber. Doesn’t that imply he would be willing work with Democrats along with Republicans? It does to me.

Then again, how does that square with the MAGA goons’ stated mission to avoid working with Democrats? That’s what got former Speaker Kevin McCarthy into trouble, right? He locked arms with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown and then — presto! — we had the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. It came from a single MAGA congressman, Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Ladies and gents, what we have now is a speaker who will serve only a small minority of the majority party in the House. To hell with public opinion of the rest of the country that opposes a national abortion, opposes shutting down the government, wants to continue supporting Ukraine and believes Joe Biden was elected fairly, squarely and legally as president in 2020.

God help us!

economic news, local news

Downtown: Priority No. 1

Almighty God did not bestow on me the power to act as King of the World, but I did get a brain that enables me to presume the impossible … and, thus, offer a suggestion on how to conduct the people’s business.

Princeton, Texas, at this moment does not have a city manager. The City Council must look for someone to replace Derek Borg, who this past week resigned his office. He’s out. The council named Leisa Gronemeier as interim manager.

What should the new manager list as his or her top priority? Here goes: He or she should place the development of a “downtown Princeton” at or near the top of the municipal agenda.

I put the terms “downtown Princeton” in quotation marks for a reason. It’s because Princeton does not have a downtown district worthy of the name. The city built a municipal government office complex. Where did it go? Into what passes for a downtown area?

No. It was erected on the eastern edge of the city on the north side of US 380.  I like the complex. It is a fine piece of construction. However, it suggests to me that the city hasn’t bought into the notion that a vibrant downtown district really matters.

It damn sure should!

I get that the city manager doesn’t set policy; that task belongs to the elected council. The manager, though, does have a bully pulpit from which he can lobby council members and the mayor to plot a certain course.

In my humble view, the next city manager has it within his or her power and authority to try to move the council to put downtown redevelopment at the top of the council’s agenda.

Practically every single American city — from its most bustling metros to the smallest of communities — has at least one thing in common as they reap the benefits of economic revival.

That would be a downtown district that bustles with life.

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