media news

Not wishing death

My comment in this brief blog post will be directed at a fellow who I must presume believes he is clairvoyant.

A Facebook friend — a member of my family — posted a ditty about Donald Trump not being seen for three days. I responded, “One can only hope.” This other guy, who I do not know, responded with a harsh rejoinder, telling me what I said was shameful and that “I want you to die.”

I couldn’t find the post when I looked for it, but I wanted to tell him that my death is inevitable, “but just not today.” Perhaps he took it down. Whatever.

Do I want Donald Trump to keel over? No. I don’t. My criticism of his policies has been harsh and I will not back away from what I believe are policies that will harm my beloved nation. But I damn sure am never going to wish death on the president of the United States of America. I am acutely aware that statements one posts find their way around the world in a manner of nano-seconds.

Therefore, I am not so stupid than to say such a thing out loud.

As for my private thoughts, that is where they will remain. Locked up and hidden from public view.

national news

Ready, set … judge his place in history!

Some of you might think I am getting ahead of myself by posing this question … but I don’t think so.

The question: Is it too early to begin wondering how history is going to judge Donald Trump’s two terms in office as president of the United States?

Pay attention. Dude is a lame duck. He won’t seek another term in office because the Constitution won’t allow it. Congressional Republicans got alarmed in the 1940s after President Roosevelt was elected for his fourth term in 1944. They wanted to prevent what they feared would be an imperial presidency. So, Congress ratified the 22nd Amendment setting a two-term limit on presidential elections.

I wil concede that historians will have difficulty wrapping their arms around Trump’s two terms. How does history judge someone who wins a second term vowing to be his supporters’ “retribution” and then proceeds to follow through on that chilling pledge? It is clear to anyone with half a functioning brain that Trump wants to rewrite the rules of governance, seeking to scarf up more power for the chief executive than the Constitution currently allows.

Leading economists and constitutional scholars say he is breaking the law by invoking inflationary tariffs on imported goods.

There well might be a special category emerging for this guy. He won’t be judged by history purely by policies he supposedly favors. I say “supposedly” because he doesn’t seem to have a philosophical core that goes beyond what’s good for him.

His obituary will contain the word “impeached” in the leading paragraph. So, for that matter, will Bill Clinton’s obit. Trump went through two of them. You know what? There well might be more of them coming up if Democrats regain control of the House in the 2026 midterm election. The question, though, for Senate Republicans is whether they will find the courage to convict him and toss his sorry backside out of office.

You can bet your final buck that historians are preparing the first draft assessing what this guy has meant to the presidency and to the nation he was elected twice to lead. Therefore , it is not too early to begin that task.

legal news

Flaws run deep in Trump doctrine

Donald Trump and his gullible gang of MAGA goofballs are operating on a faulty assumption that the nation’s Constitution protects them against protests over the extreme overreach in which they are engaged.

They purport to be true-blue conservatives who are led by a president who is claiming that the office he occupies grants him authority essentially to break the law … as long as he is performing an official act.

Let’s see about that.

The reality, as I interpret it, is that the nation’s founders created a relatively weak executive branch of government. They invested equal amounts of power in Congress and the courts and charged them with the responsibility of exercising appropriate “checks and balances” against executive overreach. One of those branches, the legislative branch comprising Congress, essentially has rolled over for Trump. The Republicans who control both congressional chambers act as if it’s OK for the president to usurp their constitutional authority. Their acquiesence has emboldened Trump to keep reaching beyond his governmental grasp. So far so good, or so it seems.

That leaves the courts as the last man standing in Trump’s way. And we are beginning to see some signs of backbone among federal judges. Trump’s legal challenges are being swatted away by judges … some of whom appointed by Trump himself. That kind of independence is precisely what the founders intended when they created a system that grants judges lifetime appointments to the federal bench.

Yeah, that kind of judicial independence just pisses Trump and his MAGA minions off. Too damn bad!

The founders did not intend to build a government that invested limitless power in one individual. If Trump had any understanding at all of our democratic process, he would know that.

But he doesn’t. Nor do the 30% to 35% of the nation’s voters who adhere to the idiocy that flows from their leader’s mouth.

media news

Football gives me relief

It’s time for another admission, which is that I am avid TV watcher, or perhaps I should say I am addicted to the TV screen.

Is there a TV Watchers Anonymous chapter nearby?

Whatever. I am happy to report that football season commenced this weekend, enabling me to turn on the boob tube (one of Dad’s expressions for the device) and watch young men play tackle football.

This avenue enables me to continue my boycott of TV news. I am no longer watching TV news/opinion channels, relying instead on the Internet and — drum roll, please — the Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News. I recently resubscribed to the paper, vowing to the nice lady who sold me the subscription that I would take the time to read it. I told her how hard it was to give up the newspaper, given my nearly 37 years writing for them in Texas and in Oregon.

Football, though, is going to help me get through the weekend for the next several months, until early February when the NCAA crowns its collegiate champion and the NFL crowns the Super Bowl champ.

I cannot begin to predict when my news boycott will end. One factor could be the absence of Donald Trump from the national political scene. I am sickened by his ongoing presence, by the sound of his voice and by the idiocy he continues to spout from that overfed pie hole of his. I’ve got three more years of it. Then he’ll be gone, at least from public office.

In the meantime, the student-athletes and the millionaires who play football professionally are kicking it off. I’ll be watching them and putting politics on the back shelf.

education news

Trump at war with First Amendment

Let there be zero misunderstanding about this truth, which is that Donald J. Trump has declared all-out war on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Yes, the ignoramus in chief has taken every provision in that amendment and subjected it to the whims of his desire to create an autocracy in the land founded on the principle that it never should become what Trump desires.

Let’s look at it, one clause at a time …

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” Trump has ordered the placement of the Ten Commandments in federal buildings and argued for the placement of them in public schools. Clearly a violation of the church-state separation clause.

“or abridging the freedom of speech …” Trump is jailing people who are speaking out against government policies initiated by the Trump administration. He signed an executive order declaring that anyone who burns Old Glory is subject to a year in jail, despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declares that flag-burning is protected political speech.

“or the press …” Trump has banned certain newsgathering organizations from the White House press briefing room. Why? Because they decline to use certain terminology favored by Trump — such as the continuing to call the Gulf of Mexico by its long-standing name, rather than referring to the Gulf of America.

“or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances … “ Trump has deployed Homeland Security personnel to arrest people for assembling to complain about government policy. He has declared that they are traitors to the government if they disagree with the lame-brained policies put forth by the administration. Any third-grade student in the United States has been taught that this country was founded on the principle of dissent, that our founders were a collection of dissenters intent on creating a government that cherished political dissent as part of the our national fabric.

The first 10 Amendments to our nation’s Constitution were intended to protect our civil liberties. They are the basis for this nation’s very existence. Donald J. Trump is out of what passes for his mind!

crime news

Gun debate renews

The rumbling under our feet is the sound of those who want to raise awareness of gun violence in the wake of the Minneapolis school shooting that killed two children and injured several other kids and adults.

Good … luck!

It is so sad to say that this event won’t produce any tangible legislative remedy than all the scores of earlier shootings that have resulted in hundreds of deaths of innocent Americans including scores of children. I mean, if Sandy Hook in Newtown or Rowe Elementary in Uvalde — where dozens of children died at the hands of madmen — can’t move the debate forward, then I doubt this one will make a damn bit of difference.

I wish I had an answer to this tragic circumstance. I have sought to say categorically that legislation can be crafted that does nothing to impede the Second Amendment to our Constitution, which protects the rights of Americans to own firearms. Yet, we hear from anti-gun-reform advocates that any measure taken does restrict our constitutional right to gun ownership. That, of course, is pure horsehit.

Critics of this blog keep reminding me that nothing could have prevented the massacres we have witnessed in schools, churches, shopping malls, theaters or music events. I cannot respond to those claims because they are made without any sense of empathy or compassion.

I have always presumed that the nation’s founders intended for firearm ownership to pertain to responsible American citizens who could pass a background check to ensure they have nothing in their past that trigger any alarms. I am not an originalist, because I don’t know what went through the brilliant minds of the men who created this government. I’m just making an assumption … which I know is dangerous.

The debate will swirl once again as we assess the tragedy of Minneapolis. Maybe the solution lies in the ballot box, where voters can replace politicians who they know resist legislative efforts to bring sanity to our lives. A congressional election is just a little more than a year away. It is time to get busy.

International news, national news

Nobel Peace Prize? Hah!

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For the ever-lovin’ life of me I don’t know really why I am wasting my energy on this issue, but it seems to be getting traction in some circles … although nowhere near me.

Donald Trump appears to be lobbying for consideration to get the Nobel Peace Prize. I cannot think of a least worthwhile nominee for that cherished prize than that fellow.

I guess he sees his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war as sufficient cause to award him the prize.

To be sure, the Nobel committee has misfired a time or two on these picks. I believe the Nobel prize panel missed the mark when it named newly elected President Obama its 2009 Peace Prize recipient. It did so on the hope he would bring peace after nearly eight years of war during President Bush’s two terms in office.

To his credit, Obama recognized what I think he realized was a mistake when he accepted the award. At least he acknowledged the unusual circumstances of his selection.

But … the idea that the Nobel panel could even consider Trump for this high honor simply boggles the noggin. Whatever peace deal emerges from the bloodshed likely will contain multiple concessions to the aggressor nation — which happens to be Russia. Surely the wise folks who hand this prestigious award to deserving winners can find someone who actually deserves it.

crime news

Are we a nation of maniacs?

Another day produced another spasm of tragedy in an American school, where a maniac opened fire and killed two children, wounding 20 others.

It happened in Minneapolis, Minn., which now joins a long list of communities associated with shooting tragedy.

I will offer “thoughts and prayers” for the family members and loved ones of those who were killed and injured. An entire nation is praying for them. I also am going to ask: What kind of maniac walks into a school and does this kind of horrific deed?

Sandy Hook, Uvalde, Santa Fe (Texas), Columbine all are linked by the infamous crime of gun violence. Against children … for God’s sake! And this only lists a few of these locations. We can add places like El Paso, Charleston and others as violence has erupted claiming an array of victims.

Now we have Minneapolis, where a moron opened fire at a Catholic school where the students were in the midst of prayer when the violence erupted.

We are growing numb to this kind of evil. It sickens me to my core.

International news

Germans have it pegged

I don’t know many Germans well, as I have only two actual friends: a husband and wife who live in Nuremberg with their three children.

Yes, I have shaken the hands of other Germans during two visits there, one in 2016 with my bride, Kathy Anne, and the other in 2024. When the subject of Donald Trump comes up, they all sing off the same page: They tell me that the onset of authoritarian rule comes in dribs and drabs, that the individual who seeks power gathers it up in bite-sized pieces. Before long — presto! — he’s acquired all the power he needs to affect serious change in the country he seeks to lead.

My friends tell me that is what they are witnessing in this country. Yes, it’s from some distance away. However, my friends are both well-educated, well-versed in government and public policy and know a dictator-in-waiting when they see him.

Many observers in Europe are wondering the same thing as well. Why are we Americans allowing this to happen?

I also have made friends in countries affected directly by Adolf Hitler’s megalomaniacism. Several live in The Netherlands, a few more live in Greece and I have shaken hands with a couple of Danes in Copenhagen and some Brits in the UK. They understand what can happen when a madman takes control of the levers of power.

I am going to cling to my faith that Americans will never tolerate what so many around the world suggest is happening here. It is all outrageous, enraging, despicable and poses an existential threat to the principles upon which the founders created what would become the world’s indispensable nation.

Yes, I have referred to Trump as a madman. I do not believe he is capable of committing the level of genocide we saw in the 1930s and ’40s. The rest of it? I’ll need to wait for him to be vanquished.

political news, State news

Get a grip, Texas Democrats

Texas Democrats need to get hold of themselves and stop all this wishful thinking about whether they’re on the verge of breaking the Republican visegrip on electoral public office.

I keep getting text messages from this and/or that candidate — real and potential — for any statewide office. They keep demanding money from me. I don’t have it to give. When the beseech me, they tell me their polling shows them leading their Republican foes. Uh huh, sure thing.

Colin Allred said the same thing in 2024,  but then lost to the Cruz Missile — aka Sen. Ted Cruz — by double digits. Allred, a former Dallas congressman, got stars in his eyes because Beto O’Rourke damn near beat Cruz six years earlier, losing to Cancun Ted by 2 or 3 percentage points.

Now we have another MAGA darling, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, rearing his ugly puss from the crowd, He leads Sen. John Cornyn in GOP primary polling by about 5 points. What does that mean for Democrats? It means, as near as I can tell, that they’re going to have find a new strategy to deploy if they have any hope of prying the GOP jaws off this statewide office. Democrats last won a Senate election in 1988, when Lloyd Bentsen was re-elected while losing as the VP candidate on the national Democratic ticket led by Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis.

I want the Democrats to break through. I want Texas to become a competitive place where candidates from both major parties can argue their differences clearly, cleanly, passionately and without fear.

At the moment, it appears to this blogger and longtime observer of Texas politics that the GOP is being choked by the MAGA morons who continue to swallow the swill served by the nation’s chief Republican In Name Only, Donald J. Trump.

I’ll just add one more observation. Trump once said before he became an actual politician that were he to run he would do so as a Republican, because Republicans were the more gullible Americans he would need to persuade to follow him down some path to oblivion.

Trump was right!

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