What does Hegseth mean?

Let us take a quick peek into the shallow mind of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the nimrod who keeps telling us that Iran has been dealt a blow that renders its armed forces “combat ineffective.”

Recall that Donald Trump recruited Hegseth off the Fox and Friends Weekend couch to lead the Pentagon. Hegseth has zero qualifications to serve as defense secretary. Except for one thing. He is blindly loyal to Trump.

Accordingly, when Trump declares complete victory over Iran in this idiotic war of choice, Hegseth follows the liar in chief straight into the crapper. He bought Trump’s desire to refer to the Pentagon chief as the “war secretary,” and calls his department the “Department of War.” What a bunch of crap!

So, when Hegseth keeps repeating the lie about Iran being rendered defenseless against our bombs and missiles, I am left to wonder: How in the hell do the Iranians keep firing missiles at targets in the Strait of Hormuz? We were told the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes “obliterated” Iran’s military. Isn’t that the case?

While we keep bombing Iran, and they keep firing back at us, the price of oil continues to skyrocket, forcing huge inflationary pressure on the price of gasoline and diesel fuel. Hegseth is silent about all of that, as is the dipshit in chief.

As a veteran who has served in a war zone for my country, I consider Pete Hegseth to be unworthy of any form of respect his office should demand. He is a disgrace.

If only Trump could see what others see

I am writing this blog post in the wee hours, so I’ll be brief with what I want to get off my chest.

We all have come to accept that Donald J. Trump is an extreme narcissist. He sees himself only in one light, that of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement. After all, he spent his entire adult life aiming to improve his financial wealth.

If only this clown could see himself as others see him. He heaps praise on himself and expects whoever is listening to it to accept it as the truth. Damn! It isn’t!

Every one of his business ventures has ended in failure. The university. The steaks. The booze. The gambling casinos, for God’s sake!

Now that he’s president, he is enacting policies that make him look like a dimwit. The world is laughing its ass off at the POTUS. He doesn’t hear the laughter. He doesn’t take any of the ctiticism seriously.

Dude is now 80 years old. He clearly is on the way out. I just don’t want this guy to inflict any mortal damage to the government he seeks to control.

Do our eyes now turn to Barron?

Barron Trump remains the mystery member of the nation’s premier political family.

I am more than willing to admit that the young man has stirred my curiosity more than just a little bit.

I mention Barron because he now is an adult. He is past the age of majority, which in some circles makes him an open target for all kinds of rhetorical mischief. I will not go there.

I do intend to express some interest in the kind of man he has become, living as he has in the crucible known as the White House.

Barron Trump, born in March 2006, now towers over almost everyone he sees. His father stands 6 foot 3, and Barron appears to be around, oh 6 foot 9 or 10.

Soon enough, probably when Dad leaves office in January 2029, we’ll get to see more of the youngest of Donald’s five kids. Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka all have made their marks on some fashion or another. A second daughter, Tiffany, has obtained her law degree and has remained out of the limelight.

Now we have Barron.

Here’s my hope for the young man. I hope he has learned from the plastering his brothers have gotten because they chose to become political animals, just like Dad. My hope for Barron Trump is that somehow, someway and through some channel that escapes me, he is able to carve out something akin to a normal life.

I suppose there’s always hope that the young man can stumble into a relationship that gives him complete happiness. I realize that’s a difficult order to fill, being the member of a family led by a fraud, a con man, a charlatan … and a loser!

He’s not my POTUS

Some of you who have read this blog over the span of many years might recall a pledge I made, which was to never insert the word “President” in front of Donald Trump’s name. I have been faithful to that pledge.

Why? Because he’s not my president and that is a feeling I never have experienced with any man who didn’t get my vote for high office. Every single day he is in office, Trump demonstrates he doesn’t give a damn about me, my family or any American who fits our profile.

And that is …

We pay our taxes on time (generally) without complaining, we serve our communities, we have worn the uniform and in many cases have gone to war when ordered, we play by the rules, we worship a holy God.

OK, you get the idea? Trump has many issues on his plate that present existential threats to our way of life. Does he deal with them in public, with the same aggressive nature he spends on trivial matters? Not in the least. Average patriotic Americans like my family members and me insist that he right some of those wrongs. He doesn’t give a damn about any of them.

He once told a reporter that he doesn’t spend any time worrying about the effect the Iran war was having on Americans’ financial condition. Never mind that the price of automobile fuel has doubled since we went to war with Iran, or that the worldwide tariffs he has imposed has spiked the price of damn near everything we buy at the grocery store.

My president would care about those effects on my family and me. Not this one.

He sickens me.

Trump’s hair is the new ‘thing’? What the … ?

As if there isn’t enough to comment on regarding Donald J. Trump, there now appears to be a new “thing” on which some pundits have become fixated.

It happens to be Donald Trump’s new “do,” the hair on his noggin, the thing that has by itself become the subject of barbs, guffaws and speculation about what it’s covering up.

You want my take on what we’re seeing? I think it looks pretty good. All elements considered …

Let’s face facts, the POTUS isn’t exactly Chippendale/firefighter calendar material. So, he’s got a new “do.” To borrow a quote from President Biden … big fu***** deal!

Some of you might wonder, oh, geez, is the blogger going soft on the Orange Man? Hell no! He is leaving behind a legacy worthy of every bit of scorn imaginable. We have that Iran war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, those destructive tariffs, the dude’s bizarre behavior on the world stage, the East Wing disaster, the Reflecting Pool, Trump’s obsession with gold trimmings and that idiotic notion of slapping his name on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that already carries the name of the only Black enlisted man so honored.

Trump’s hairdo? This is the final thing I likely ever will say about it.

What if Obama had done any of this … ?

Social media are so chock full of viral entries, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with them.

However, one of those viral moments caught my attention this morning. I’ll be brief, but I just have to share its contents.

A young woman poses a series of questions, such as, “What if Barack Obama had … “

Paid off a porn star, allowed his daughters to earn billions off of phony investments, started a war with Iran, launched an insurrection to prevent the transition of power after a free and fair election, tore down the East Wing, posted a picture of himself as Jesus, faked an assassination attempt, was a convicted felon, threatened to destroy an entire civilization, pardoned individuals convicted of committing crimes in that insurrection … etc., etc., etc.

A young man in this video said President Obama would be impeached, convicted of high crimes, sent to prison and then maybe executed in public.

That’s the reputation facing right-wingers as they look the other way on all the matters that dog Donald Trump.

Ready to accept ‘honor’ of grateful nation

Fewer than seven days to go and soon it will be flaps as 44 fellow veterans and I take off from Love Field for an “Honor Flight” designed to thank those who wore the uniform while serving our great land.

Please accept my brutal candor here. It took me some time to consider this a trip worth making. Why is that?

Well, I wasn’t sure a brief sprint through some of our nation’s hallowed memorials and monuments was worth the effort. Time also was a factor. Honor Flights leave in the morning of Day One and return the evening of Day Two.

As time marched on, I kept hearing reports from other veterans who have declared the event one of the highlights of their lives. Hmm, I thought: Well, if it means so much to so many of these veterans, then perhaps there’s more than meets the eye on these honor flights.

The vets who return talk of the immense respect they collect from strangers they encounter while touring the DC Mall memorials. You know, this might be all that it is cracked up to be.

The older veterans on this trip saw service in the Vietnam Era. Many of us actually reported for duty in the war zone. I will exempt myself from in any discussion of combat experience in Vietnam. I was a REMF. The acronym stands for Rear Echelon … you can assemble the rest of what the letters spell out.

And although I didn’t get the “baby killer” epithet or other hostile language, I did receive the cold shoulder from strangers –and, yes, even a few friends — when I mentioned my time in the war zone.

These Honor Flights are an effort to tell us that the nation is sorry for the way it treated us when we got home and to thank all those who wore the uniform that the nation is proud of them.

Six more days of prep — emotional and physical — are on tap for this ol’ geezer. I am looking forward to this whirlwind.

A real prediction, or just hot air?

There are times for sure when you want to believe predictions that come from “experts” who not only claim to know many things, but who have track records to demonstrate to predict the future.

I am not sure about what I have just read regarding what is percolating in the political mind of James Carville.

Carville is a political pistol to be sure. He says Donald Trump is a “soft man” who will be unable to tolerate the shellacking his Republican Party will suffer in the midterm election that’s just around the corner. So … Carville said that Trump will quit the office and hand it over to Vice President J.D. Vance.

Part of me wants to happen. Trump is a fool, a buffoon, a dangerous wanna-dictator who has no business being anywhere near the nuclear codes. Vance … ? He’s another cat altogether.

He’s also a fool, but not quite the buffoon that Trump has shown himself to be. He is able to string sentences together. He makes them sound like they make sense even if they don’t.

According to the Irish Star: Trump simply lacks the strength to face the crushing defeat headed his way, Carville argues: “He’s a soft man.” Concerns have also mounted over Trump’s health, with noticeable signs including drowsiness, swollen ankles, and dark bruises on his hands. Current projections indicate that the Democrats have a 76.9% chance of securing a majority of seats in the House, a number that has climbed consistently in recent months. The president will bear the brunt of his party’s collapse, Carville says: “They’re going to blame [Trump] – the whole culture is going to change. The whole conversation is going to change.”

Vance clearly wants to be elected to the presidency in 2028. I don’t know that factually, but it makes a whole lot of sense for him to position himself as a possible frontrunner. But he’s going to carry a lot of the baggage that Carville and others say will doom Trump to feckless lame-duck status once the dust clears from the midtern election.

Carville once guided Bill Clinton to a decisive victory in 1992. He developed the “war room” where all the key Clinton campaign decisions were made. He goes through life seemingly feeling as if certain things are going to happen. As often as not, they do. That gives this prediction a bit more weight than others might have.

I am just going to sit on my hands and watch Trump as carefully as I can from my distance far from the center of the universe.

And I suppose I can hope that if Democrats get control of both congressional chambers, then an impeachment and probable conviction in a Senate trial would spur Trump to pack it in.

Let’s all get ready to rumble.

TxDOT proposes huge project for Lavon Lake

You could’ve knocked me over with a feather duster when I saw the headline in this week’s issue of the Princeton Herald that said, “TxDOT proposes widening Lake Lavon Bridge.”

This, boys and girls, is the kind of news that tells me the government gurus in Austin actually take what is happening in Collin County seriously enough to commit — at least in writing — to improving our transportation infrastructure that is becoming almost a one-eyed monster for those of us who have to travel on our roads and highways.

The Texas Department of Transportation is proposing a $230 million expansion of Farm-to-Market Road 3286 and FM 546. It would replace an existing two-lane bridge that most days becomes a scenic parking lot as vehicles inch their way across the lake in either direction. The Herald reported that TxDOT plans to “widen nearly five miles of roadway between Lucas and the Princeton area.”

Here’s part of the deal, though, and it gives me a bit of a hint of concern. TxDOT says the project is years away and it has designated zero money for the work that will be required.

That makes me wonder how TxDOT can propose and then stand behind the $230 million figure it hopes to spend on this enormous project.

I’ll tell ya, however, TxDOT has gotten a lot of people’s attention. TxDOT had a hearing at Southfork Ranch in Parker and a resident who lives on the Peninsula said, “We need just another way to get off the Peninsula because it’s so much traffic. It starts like at 5:30 in the morning.”

So … TxDOT plans a rescue mission to give some relief to those of us who grumble daily about getting caught in traffic. It’ll be a while, but damn, this is good news!

AI … more frightening all the time

If only I knew more about artificial intelligence, well, then I could make a more cogent argument about why it scares the bejabbers out of me.

My knowledge of AI is limited, so I’ll go with what I know. It ain’t much.

I have watched video presentations of people saying things that I know in my heart they never could say. Yet AI providers are filling our screens and I-phones with images of them saying it. The development of artificial intelligence goes way beyond my pointed head’s ability to understand it. All I see and hear is the product they develop.

I made my living back in the day providing information about the communities I called home. From Portland, Ore., to S.E. Texas, to the Texas Panhandle, I relied on actual living, breathing human beings to tell me what they believed to be the truth about our communities and the people who gave them life. I could fact-check them quickly and determine the veracity of what they said. I then could take that verified information and report it to the world.

These days it’s a vastly different game. I can listen to a news report and wonder out loud and consciously whether I was being fed information from a human being or whether it was coming from an AI-generated creature.

I hate having to make that determination. I very well could be all wet in making these assumptions about AI. I don’t making them, as long as I am relying only on my limited knowledge of what AI is, or will become.

I keep hearing that AI has all kinds of benefits. To be candid, I know yet know what they are. Having said that, I guess I will just have to go through my life being constantly wary of what I am hearing.

Is it true or is it the product of artificially produced intelligence?

God help me …

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