military news

Honoring the fallen warriors

First, a touch of family history as we prepare to commemorate a holiday to honor those who have fallen in combat.

My Dad and one of my uncles endured the horror of combat during World War II. Dad served in the Navy and my uncle served with an Army aviation unit. Another uncle went through the same while leading an Army infantry company during the Korean War. Many of us from the high school class of 1967 in Portland, Ore., went to war during Vietnam.

Despite all of that, I lost no one close to me during all that exposure to enemy fire. So, Memorial Day, while important and significant to Americans as we honor those who have paid the ultimate price to service to the country, is not an event that sends me spiraling into personal grief.

I have written before on this platform about a young man I knew in Vietnam who did pay the price. His name was Jose DeLaTorre. He hailed from Fullerton, Calif. In July 1969, he mounted a UH-1 Huey helicopter, strapped himself into an M-60 machine gun and ferried some troops to what they all thought would be a routine drop-off. It wasn’t.

The enemy was waiting for our guys at the landing zone and they opened fire with intense fury. Jose died that day. I didn’t know him well. In fact, I knew him only well enough to congratulate him on the orders he had gotten that would send him home after spending about 20 months in Vietnam.

So, I will honor the day by remembering Jose’s service and his sacrifice along with all the many thousands of other Americans who died in service to the nation they — and we — all love with every fiber of our being.

entertainment news, national news, political news

The Boss speaks for many of us

Bruce Springsteen once was thought of as merely a musical icon, a man whose notes resonated with generations of Americans.

Suddenly, though,, he now has become — dare I say it — an iconic political commentator.

The Boss stopped a concert he was performing in Manchester, England, the other evening to offer a commentary on the country he loves and has sung about with great passion for more than 50 years. He doesn’t like what he’s seeing in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and said as much to his audience of thousands of admirers. Turns out his soliloquy reverberated far beyond the audience that heard it in person.

He spoke of the damage being done to the world’s greatest republic by Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk, the MAGA dipshits who are cheering them on and the Republican majority in Congress that lacks the courage to stand up to the machinations of a madman/would-be dictator.

To be sure, it can be argued — and I won’t do it here — that an American citizen shouldn’t take his message overseas to deliver what’s in his heart. Springsteen noted, though, that Americans here at home are being detained and jailed for doing the very thing he reminded the Brits in Manchester that our Constitution guarantees as a fundamental right of citizenship. This nation was founded by dissenters, those who spoke against the Crown and who finally went to war to free themselves of the oppression brought to them by their British masters.

So, there was a certain irony that Bruce Springsteen, the man who was “born in the USA,” would speak from the depths of his heart about the anguish he is feeling about the nation he loves.

He did so with remarkable eloquence.

local news

City must serve residents first

You know by now that Princeton, Texas, is in the throes of a growth explosion, so the city has taken a key step to help it cope with the ramifications of the immense growth it is undergoing.

The Princeton City Council has decided to end its fire protection for residents living in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Why? As I understand it, the city wants to devote its firefighting and emergency response resources to the growing number of residents living in the city’s corporate limits. Those in the ETJ will need to rely on Collin County to answer the call when fire breaks out.

This is a growing trend in fast-growing cities. Melissa has done so already. Wylie and Farmersville have given notice that they are going to follow suit. ETJ neighborhoods can seek to be annexed by Princeton at a later time. The Legislature some years ago amended state law to prohibit cities from arbitrarily annexing ETJs into their city limits.

On the surface, the decision might seem heartless. It doesn’t leave ETJ residents defenseless against fire or other emergencies. It merely puts pressure on the county to implement a proposed emergency services district that would cover those areas that cities are now having to forgo. Princeton Mayor Eugene Escobar said the city has been providing fire protection service to the ETJ “without being properly compensated.” Look, cities such as Princeton have to look at servicing those whose municipal tax money pays the bills.

This is one of those bittersweet elements of rapid municipal growth. I get what the city is seeking to do. It wants to ensure it has adequate resources to aid those to whom the city answers directly. That would be those who live within the city limits.

As City Manager Mike Mashburn noted: “This decision ensures our fire department can maintain the level of protection our residents expect and deserve.” This action makes sense.

 

medical news

Another conspiracy given birth

Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis is bound to run its course, no matter where it ends up.

If the former president is able to beat back the aggressive form of prostate cancer — which I and others hope happens — we’re going to see the temporary end to what is likely to occur if the president’s cancer fight ends in another fashion.

What will occur will be the birth of yet one more never-ending conspiracy theory. This one will center on allegations that the White House covered up President Biden’s cancer, that staffers knew he suffered from “aggressive prostate cancer,” but wanted him re-elected in 2024, so that he could resign and hand the presidency over to Vice President Kamala Harris.

I don’t feel good about the former president’s prognosis. He is 82 years of age. He has had cancer before, many years ago. But no one ever talks about that.

I am not privy, nor is anyone outside the White House, to what people knew during Biden’s term as president and when they knew it. A couple of questions keep nagging at me regarding the conspiracy theorists.

One is, why even worry about such a thing now? Joe Biden is no longer president. He has exited the political arena after serving what many millions of us consider to be a successful presidency. I am not going to spend a moment of my time thinking about what the White House medical staff knew and whether they covered it up.

The other is that we’ll never know the answer, except that if the White House medical team says it hid nothing, that is going to be good enough for me.

Conspiracy theories are the stuff of individuals who have too much time on their hands and too little to fill their vacuous noggins.

local news, media news

Gadflies can do good

My freelance gig has allowed me to get better acquainted with communities throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth region, which follows the form I’ve used for decades … meaning that I learn about new places when I am asked to cover them.

I recently began a gig covering the Sachse City Council in a nice city that straddles the Collin-Dallas County line. They have a seven-member council, a competent city staff and lots of people who attend the council meetings on most occasions. They also have what can be referred to as the resident gadfly, a fellow who I understand attends almost every council meeting and brings his version of what’s wrong with the city to everyone’s attention.

This fellow, though, did something I found quite refreshing. He ran for mayor and lost to the incumbent in an election that occurred at the start of the month. He ended up polling around 40% of the vote in a two-man contest. I don’t know about you, but I consider that a fairly strong showing for a fellow who, as I understand it, doesn’t usually offer much constructive analysis when he bellows before the council in the public comment portion of the meetings.

I have witnessed my share of gadflies during my nearly 37 years as a journalist covering issues for daily newspapers in Texas and Oregon. Almost all of them are content to merely bitch about government, but then decline to step into the arena when given the chance. This guy took his shot at it. He fell short.

One such gadfly in Amarillo once was elected to a seat on a county commissioners court. He raised a little bit of hell with the county, then stepped away. He also continued to gripe about alleged mistreatment by City Hall, but has not yet offered himself as a candidate for the city council.

I have no way to know where my newest gadfly acquaintance will take his camaign for civic improvement. Maybe he’ll make another run for political office. He might just be content to bitch out loud from the gallery at City Council meetings.

I do intend to listen carefully to what he has to say and along the way learn a little more about a community I will be serving. Even gadflies can teach me something.

Sports news

What about other MLB cheaters?

Now that I have more or less done an about-face regarding the late Pete Rose’s former lifetime ban from baseball, I suppose I should come clean with some of other cheaters who have been kept out of the Hall of Fame.

We ought to look at them on a case-by-case basis.

Barry Bonds likely ought to go in. Dude did hit 762 home runs over his career, but I still consider the late Hank Aaron to be the homer king with 755 because he did without steroids. I remember during the 2022 season when Albert Pujols was seeking to join the 700-home run club and announcers kept reminding us that “only three men have done so, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth.” I don’t like putting Bonds in the same stratosphere as the Hammer and the Babe.

Same for Roger Clemens, the former Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher. Still not sure what Clemens did that was so egregious.

Alex Rodriguez? Same thing. He hit home runs for the Texas Rangers, the Seattle Mariners and the Yankees. He hit a lot of ’em, in fact. The allegations against him also have seemed a bit murky.

Others, not so sure. Mark McGwire hit 583 homers for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Oakland A’s, but the rest of his career stat line is mediocre. His Bash Brother in Oakland, Jose Canseco, brags about using the drugs. Rafael Palmiero lied to our face about drug use. Sammy Sosa? Keep him out, too.

I guess my old age has softened me just a bit. I’ve listened to the Bonds/Rodriguez/Clemens fans long enough to be persuaded that they ought to be in the Hall of Fame. Their stats would be worthy even had they not cheated a bit to roll up those big numbers.

One final point. I am frankly a bit surprised at the negative reaction to baseball’s decision to lift the ban on Rose and on “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, who got involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal in which he conspired to throw the World Series.

But … everyone has an opinion.

economic news

Where’s the love for Biden?

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Let me get this straight: The stock market tanks and Donald Trump blames former President Biden for it.

The market then rallies big time … and Trump is silent.

No love for Biden. Why is that? Does the former president deserve to be showered with praise? No. Not really.

The point, though, is that Trump’s hair-trigger is far too quick to dish out criticism while his so-called kinder side just cannot be motivated to hand out a word of praise.

He’s a weirdo, man.

media news

Public radio, TV under attack

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Right-wingers’ vendetta against public radio and television would be laughable … if the consequences of this battle weren’t so frightening.

They want to defund National Public Radio, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service. Why? Because they contend erroneously that it’s all “fake,” that it’s biased against conservatives and that the right-wing cabal just won’t tolerate it any longer.

Good fu**ing grief!

In in the interest of full disclosure, I will say I have some experience working for both public media. I freelanced for Panhandle PBS and for High Plains Public Radio for a time after leaving print journalism in 2012. And I worked for a time for KETR-FM public radio in Commerce, Texas, for a while after my wife and I moved to the Metroplex.

I have seen their work up close and I can attest to the absolute professionalism I witnessed while working for them.

I long have held the view that bias rests in the hearts and minds of news consumers, not necessarily in those who deliver it.

I recall a conversation I had with an NPR news director once who explained to me the rules that the broadcast network places on those who deliver the news over the air. They must avoid terms, he said, that connote a point of view. One of those words, he explained, is “reform.”

When discussing legislation aimed at changing current public policy, NPR journalists were told to use the term “overhaul” policy, not “reform” it, as reformation means it would be an improvement.

My friend was quite adamant in telling me that public radio takes its responsibility to be fair, neutral and unbiased quite seriously.

What’s more, I have to point out that the founders protected a “free press” from government interference. They set those protections for the only industry functioning then  — and now — in the Constitution.

The right-wing cabal needs to get a grip and perhaps look inward to determine the source of the bias it seeks to eliminate.

national news, national security

Waltz is out … what about Hegseth?

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National security adviser Mike Waltz has been shown the door by Donald J. Trump for his role in the leak of sensitive material via a social media platform.

Hey, I’m good with it. Trump needed to get him the hell out of there.

But … wait a second. What about the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, the clown Trump appointed to run the Pentagon and who also, by the way, is involved up to his armpits in the same matter that befell Waltz?

Trump has surrounded himself with ignorant boobs, buffoons and misfits. Chief among must be Hegseth, the former Fox talk show host who got elevated to run the world’s most lethal military operation. Watch him today, and you get the impression he still is pandering to a right-wing TV audience while discussing military policy matters … of which he knows not a damn thing.

Waltz got caught sending material out via a social media platform. It was highly classified material. The same kind of material that Hegseth blabbed about to his wife and other family members.

Trump once boasted in 2016 while forming the executive branch of government that he would hire “the best people.” It didn’t happen then and it hasn’t happened this time around. He hired an education secretery, Linda McMahon, who recently confused AI, shorthand for artificial intelligence, with “A-1,” a brand of steak sauce.

Robert Kennedy Jr., a premier conspiracy theorist and vaccine denier, now runs the Health and Human Services Department, and is threatening to endanger the lives of children and teenagers throughout the world.

Now, Trump has declared he “runs the government and the world.” Huh? Yeah. He said that. Except that he runs only one third of the federal government, the one lined out in the Constitution as the excutive branch.

I’m glad Mike Waltz is no longer providing national security advice to the Numbskull in Chief. He’s only one of many who need to go.

Donald Trump

What would Mom and Dad think?

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My late parents departed this Earth long before Donald J. Trump burst onto the nation’s political scene.

Dad was gone in 1980; Mom died four years later. Neither of them had the displeasure of suffering from the whims and machinations of this truly bizarre individual. Still, I think about them every day even without having to attach their names to what they might be thinking about what the current president is doing to our economy and to our standing in the world.

I’ll be candid on assessing their analytical skills. Dad wasn’t much of a critical thinker. He relied on his gut. A side of me actually thinks he might have been impressed by Trump’s phony bravado. Dad was a proud World War II veteran, though, and my hope is that he would be repulsed by Trump’s blatant disrespect for those of us who did don the uniform of our country.

Mom, however, was a much deeper thinker than Dad. I will presume that she would be aghast at Trump’s homophobia, his racism, lack of empathy and compassion, his boasting of business skills when he’s run every endeavor he’s ever touched into the ground.

Therefore, on these matters, I am much more my mother’s son than I am a part of Dad.

They’re no longer around and I shudder to think how they would respond to what is unfolding during this second Donald Trump turn as POTUS.

I shudder, indeed, at how Dad might be cheering the charlatan on as he lies through his teeth. More importantly, though, I shudder at how Mom would respond to this individual’s overall unfitness for the nation’s highest and most honored public office.

 

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience