media news

House turns quiet

This is difficult for me to admit, but the lack of TV noise has served to settle my emotions and provide me needed peace.

I am thinking of keeping the TV off during the day and most of the evening … except to watch an occasional movie on one of the several streaming channels for which I already am paying.

I once was an avid TV watcher. I turned the damn thing on first thing in the morning and kept it on throughout the day. After a time, it got to where I hardly could hear the noise emanating from what Dad called the “boob tube.” Dad had a weird sense about TVs. He sold them for a living, made a lot of money peddling boob tubes to dealers throughout Oregon and much of Washington.

I guess I didn’t inherit his peculiar devotion to an appliance that has become something of a distraction.

We had one of the first TVs in Portland in the early 1950s. Then Mom and Dad acquired one of the first color TVs in the later 1950s. My sister and I would welcome our friends over to watch TV shows “in living color.” We marveled at it.

The climate today has changed dramatically from what I remember as a boy.

These days, I don’t miss the chatter. I don’t miss the background noise. I don’t miss the annoying commercials that seem to be never-ending. I don’t miss, in particular, those ads pushing all those prescription drugs — with names that sound like they’re from another planet — designed to cure everything from diabetes to erectile dysfunction.

I am enjoying the quiet time. Now comes a test to see how long the enjoyment lasts. I am hoping for a long hiatus.

media news

Spared the news of the day

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Times like today fill me with a mixed blessing of sadness and relief.

Sadness arrived about 9 a.m.  when I learned my sister died this morning of heart failure brought on by the acute COPD she suffered. I wasn’t surprised when the call came. It still saddens me beyond all I dare seek to measure.

The blessing? I have zero interest in what’s happening in the world. I have kept my TV quiet and dark all day as I have gone about my personal business here in Princeton.

I do not give a sh** what Elon Musk, the de facto POTJS, wants to slash from the government. Nor do I give a rat’s royal red ass what Donald Trump is bloviating about today. I don’t care about the Democratic response. I don’t give a sh** about the political consequences of all this mayhem.

I care instead about my brother-in-law and the loss I know he is feeling. His best friend has left this good Earth. I am going to worry only about him and I will let the other crap just fester without me.

Sports news

MLB calls my name

This is going to be the season, I am preparing to commit, when I will attend more than a single Major League Baseball game over yonder in Arlington, where the Texas Rangers play hardball.

I attended a Rangers game two seasons ago when they were contending for the American League pennant. They won the pennant and went on to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games.

The most astonishing aspect of the Rangers’ championship run was how they managed to win every road game they played en route to defeating the D’backs.

A friend took me to that game in Arlington. We had a huge blast watching the Rangers rally big late in the game to score a blowout win.

I have lived near MLB franchises before. My wife, sons and I lived in Beaumont, only about 80 miles east along I-10 from Houston, where the Astros once played ball. The ‘Stros had a pretty decent pitcher on their staff … by the name of Nolan Ryan. Did I ever traipse down the road to see the Ryan Express toss heat at the oppositon? Nope … and I regret failing to do so to this day.

Arlington isn’t too terribly far from Princeton. I gotta make the effort to see a ballgame or three while the season is in progress. The Rangers have some work to do if they intend to return to the World Series.

Still, they play in a fabulous venue. The fans are loyal. Moreover, I want to return to cheering for a favorite Major League ballclub. I hope the Texas Rangers can step up.

media news

Media war is a loser

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Presidents of the United States, almost to a man, have acknowledged publicly the value that an independent press brings to the world government.

Many of them have not always liked the coverage they get from the media — be it broadcast, cable, print, radio or Internet — but they accept it as part of governance. The media keep the pols on their toes.

In the age of Donald Trump, though, the media have become the “enemy of the people.” They become targets of the president, of the Department of Justice, of politicians at every level. Trump now seeks to ban The Associated Press from White House press briefings because the AP refuses to describe the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Trump also has banned from the White House all media outlets that report issues with a critical eye. He wants to shutter networks such as MSNBC and CNN. He wants the public to receive only coverage he deems favorable to his policies.

This is one of the more frightening aspects of Trump’s return to the pinnacle of power. He is unhinged, unfettered, unbound and unambiguous about his disdain for the media.

The nation’s founders sought to provide press protection among the civil liberties they wrote into the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees that the government “shall make no law” that impinges on a free and untethered press.

Donald Trump, the ignoramus in chief, needs to understand that a truly conservative government respects what it has identified as the founders’ “original intent.”

And the president should take his lumps just like his predecessors have done. That’s how democracy works.

International news, military news

Trump betrays our ally

Donald J. Trump has made history in a sickening sort of way by being the first American president to pivot away from an ally at war with an aggressor nation.

The United States, led by President Joe Biden, went all in to defend Ukraine against the Russian invaders. The former president rallied our NATO and EU allies and mustered considerable support in the United Nations. The result has been a stiffening of resistance by Ukraine against Russia.

Now we hear Trump parroting Vladimir Putin dogma, and then Trump blames Ukraine for starting a war that began when Russian troops and tanks crossed into Ukraine.

Putin is a war criminal. He has violated multiple provisions lined out in the Geneva Accords that dictate the conduct of a land war.

Trump and Putin are seeking to negotiate an end to the three-year war without any input from Volodymr Zelenskyy.

Sickening.

media news

Trump’s ‘ratings’ are tanking

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Donald J. Trump, when campaigning for the presidency, often has referred to “ratings” in assessing the success he is having with the public.

You’ve heard him boast about the “ratings” he allegedly scored at campaign rallies, or TV appearances, or whatever he did while campaigning.

Well, it appears — if reports are accurate — that the ratings game is petering out for Trump. Some recent polling suggests his approval/disapproval rating is the worst of any POTUS at this stage of his term. It’s good to keep that in a bit of perspective. He wasn’t exactly a newbie when he took office in January. He did an earlier term in which he got impeached twice and got indicted on multiple felonies.

Americans knew what they were getting when they elected this dumbass a second time in November.

Since taking office a little over a month ago, Trump has managed to:

  • Seek to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
  • Discussed openly purchasing Greenland from Denmark.
  • Talked about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state.
  • Pledged to seize back the Panama Canal.
  • Discussed taking possession of the Gaza Strip and turning it into a Middle East Riviera.
  • Appointed a cast of clowns and crackpots to his Cabinet.

Americans simply cannot believe the nonsense that flows from this individual’s overfed pie hole.

But it does. And polling suggests Americans have had their fill … already. Oh, the fun is just beginning.

crime news, legal news

Patel to take FBI reins … God help us!

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, once revered and venerated for its professionalism, is now being run by a guy who thinks the agency has become a clown show staffed by crooks, charlatans and crackpots.

Kash Patel won Senate confirmation today by a 51-49 vote, hardly the type of mandate that previous FBI directors have traditionally received. The past three FBI directors were confirmed with at least 92 Senate votes.

Patel is about as unqualified and unfit as anyone I’ve ever seen for the job as head of the nation’s premier crime-fighting outfit. It is staffed with thousands of public servants who are dedicated to doing their job and fulfilling their mission to keep us safe from those who wish to do us harm.

Patel once said he intended to close the Hoover FBI Building and turn it into a museum of the “deep state.” He vows to hunt down and prosecute anyone who opposes Donald Trump. What the hell? He has declared war on the media, the only privately held institution in this country granted protection from government influence and interference in the U.S. Constitution.

And this is the dipsh** Trump selected to lead the FBI?

Of the handful of troublesome Trump picks to lead the executive branch, I declared Kash Patel to be the worst of the bunch. I stand by my earlier assessment of this moron’s world view.

Now I will merely pray he chickens out on his threats to weaponize his department.

science news

Glenn knew the lingo

John Glenn served his country with honor, as a Marine Corps fighter pilot during the Korean War, as an astronaut chosen to blaze our trail into space and as a U.S. senator from Ohio. This man led a full and rewarding life.

Sixty-three years ago today, Glenn got strapped into a Mercury space ship and launched into space for a three-orbit mission. He became the first American to orbit the planet. The Soviet Union already had put two men into orbit: Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov. President Kennedy had declared his intention to put a “man on the moon and return him safely to the Earth” before the end of the 1960s. The space race was on!

Kennedy didn’t live to see his mission accomplished.

Here’s the thing about Glenn: He always stayed alert to the space program and likely wished for a second trip into space. In 1998, 36 years after his first ride, Glenn got to spend several days aboard the shuttle Discovery. His mission was to expose his 77-year-old body to the rigors of space flight. He was the oldest human at the time ever to fly into space.

What is so cool about this flight, though, is the knowledge and fluency in astronaut lingo that Glenn brought to the mission. Two other members of Congress —  Republican Sen. Jake Garn of Utah and Democratic Rep. Bill Nelson of  Florida — had flown already. They, however, needed some schooling on the language that astronauts speak to communicate. Nelson, interestingly, is now director of the NASA space program.

Glenn  needed no such tutoring. He knew precisely how to communicate in astronaut jargon. It made his training easier and less cumbersome than it likely was with his congressional predecessors.

I just wanted to call attention to this great American patriot and honor his magnificent service to the nation he loved. His Mercury and shuttle flights were two leaps he  executed during his distinguished public service career.

local news, State news

Princeton still needs an ID

Princeton is a growing North Texas city that needs to establish a community event that delivers an identity to a rapidly developing community.

City Manager Mike Mashburn estimates Princeton’s population at 43,000 residents. It’s a far cry, therefore, from the tiny burg that straddles U.S. Highway 380.

Why bring this issue up again? I received my copy of Texas Highways annual Texas State Travel Guide. I have been reading Texas Highways magazine for many years. It is a premier travel magazine that highlights communities throughout our vast state, telling visitors of places and people of interest.

This year’s Travel Guide, just like all the rest I have seen over many decades, contains not a single mention of Princeton. The 2025 edition of the Travel Guide doesn’t list Princeton in the section dedicated to communities throughout North and Northeast Texas.

Farmersville, a much smaller community eight miles east of Princeton, is listed among potential destinations in Texas. Farmersville commemorates World War II hero Audie Murphy every year; the Rike Memorial Library contains an Audie Murphy exhibit; Chaparral Trail gets a mention; so does Freedom Park in the city’s downtown plaza.

Princeton, which is roughly 10 times the size of Farmersville, gets no mention at all.

I know that these identity issues take time to develop. Princeton clearly is a city in transition as it seeks to manage the explosive growth that at times seens to overwhelm local officials.

I have lived in Princeton for six years. I enjoy my life here. However, there seems to be little community enthusiasm for events that benefit the entire city … and make Princeton a place to visit and to enjoy the benefits of life in the growing community.

If Texas Highways magazine cannot mention this rapidly growing city, then the folks at City Hall need to redouble their efforts to stage an event that brings people here … if only for a day!

I want my city to get a mention in the state’s premier travel magazine. I guess I will have to wait until next year.

International news, military news

Trump blames Ukraine for war … seriously

Donald J. Trump put his depravity on full display with a bizarre social media message that blames Ukraine for starting the war that began when Russia invaded its sovereign neighbor.

According to The Independent: In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump accused Zelensky, who he called a “modestly successful comedian” in a reference to his previous career as a sitcom star and entertainer, of having “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.”

I am utterly speechless. This guy’s incessant enfatuation with a known killer and goon — Vladimir Putin — is simply beyond description.

Geez, Louise! This clown has turned his back on a dependable ally in Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy. He has stood up to Russia’s immoral and illegal invasion for three years. Ukraine has inflicted stunning casualties against an enemy force that sought to enter Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, just days after crossing the border.

President Joe Biden pledged financial support. He mustered full-throated NATO and EU support for Ukraine’s defense of its territory.

Now we have Donald Trump siding with his pal Putin.

Absolutely disgraceful for the new president to forsake our national pledge to help an ally defend itself against a tinhorn dictator.

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