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Another tragedy unfolds

You won’t read “thoughts and prayers” for the loved ones of the latest mass shooting coming from this blogger.

Indeed, the expression almost has become as much a cliche as “sorry for your loss ” and “at the end of the day.”

No, instead I am going to offer my expression of utter disgust that even after the moron opened fire in Lewiston, Maine — killing at least 20 people — we likely still won’t get any legislation that seeks to end this kind of senseless slaughter.

Barack Obama once declared that “the worst day of my presidency” was when he learned of the mass killings of those second-graders and their teachers in Newtown, Conn. He pushed Congress to act, imploring them to act in the cause of preventing other such massacres.

It didn’t work. Congress did nothing but offer “thoughts and prayers.” Uvalde came along and there have been many others since the Sandy Hook tragedy of 2012.

Now this.

We are represented in Congress by cowards.

national news

MAGA Mike becomes speaker

What do we call the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives? I think I’ll settle on MAGA Mike.

I should be happy that the People’s House now has a leader. I am not happy. Speaker Mike Johnson moved from the darkest of shadows into the spotlight quite literally overnight.

Today, with the entire GOP House caucus backing him, MAGA Mike emerged from the way-back bench to become the person who is third in line to become president of the United States of America.

What’s more, we have handed the gavel — and all the power it symbolizes — to an individual who continues to challenge the fact that Joe Biden was elected president of the United States in 2020 and that Donald Trump lost.

Yep, this is the nation’s first MAGA speaker of the House. He emerged after yet another embarrassing sequence of failed votes, of party nominees accepting the GOP call only to quit. The MAGA cult continued to make demands on the individuals it would support.

Then came Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana. He was elected to the House in 2016. He’s been re-elected three times. He doesn’t serve as a front-line leader on any committee. He’s just … there! Johnson shows up, given credence to Woody Allen’s credo that “95% of success starts when you just show up.”

Don’t look for Speaker Johnson to get rid of the rule that forced Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership, the one that empowers just a single House member to call for a vote to kick the speaker out of office. It was a MAGA demand that enabled McCarthy to be elected speaker in the first place — and it did him in.

So now we have MAGA Mike calling the shots in the House.

Is this a time to cheer? Hardly.

I’m going to pray for our country.

local news, Sports news

How ’bout them ex-Soddies?

I just have to give a shout-out to my many friends in Amarillo and the surrounding area who have been spending many days and evenings at Hodgetown cheering for the minor league baseball team, the Sod Poodles.

You see, a lot of those former Soddies now are suiting up for the Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League; the Diamondbacks are the “parent” club of the Sod Poodles, so when a Soddie does well, he gets a chance to play in the Big Leagues. Thus, they have earned their way into the Bigs and starting Friday will be playing in the World Series … arguably the greatest sports event in the world.

I won’t join them in rooting for the D’Backs. My loyalty lies with the American League champion Texas Rangers, whose accomplishments have lit a fire under big-league baseball fans in the Metroplex, where I now reside.

I do think it’s cool, though, for Amarillo to lay claim as it will to one of the teams playing for the Commissioners Trophy. Therefore, I salute y’all and let’s hope for a World Series for the ages.

national news

Clown show loses another one

The congressional Republican clown show keeps losing its yuksters, apparently because they have had enough of the laughs their show keeps producing.

Get a load of this: Rep. Tom Emmer came out of a closed-door Republican voting session as the party’s latest nominee to become speaker of the U.S. House … only to tell his fellow Republicans — three hours later! — that he doesn’t want the job after all.

What the hell? Oh, but wait. House Republicans nominated Emmer anyway reluctantly after five votes among members of the GOP caucus.

It’s been three weeks since the MAGA cult booted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy out of his office. Republicans then turned to Rep. Steve Scalise, who then dropped out. Up stepped bomb-thrower Rep. Jim Jordan to seek the speakership; three failed House floor votes ended his bid to become the Man of the House.

Then we saw Rep. Emmer rise … only to take a header.

This is a case of a once-great political party being unable to find its backside with both hands.

Once more with gusto: the Republican Party has been seized by the crazed cult that marches to the cadence called by the immediate past POTUS, the clown who says the 2020 election was rigged.

These bozos cannot govern! They intimidate themselves and seek to bully others. They cannot even nominate one of their fellow Republicans to lead a legislative chamber — in which they hold the slimmest majority.

I have to mention that a boatload of important work needs to get done. Let’s see: How about that government shutdown thing? We’ve only got a few days before the government runs out of money. Will the House of Representatives GOP clown show gather itself in time to find someone — anyone! — who wants to take what looks like the worst job in America?

Doubt is creeping in.

local news, Sports news

‘Home-field advantage’?

OK, kids, we now know the first two games of the 2023 Major League Baseball World Series will occur at Globe-Life Field in Arlington, giving the Texas Rangers “home-field advantage” in the best-of-seven series.

But … wait. Is that “advantage” worth having?

The Rangers and the Houston Astros played their guts out in the American League Championship Series. The “away” team won every game. The Rangers won their four games against the ‘Stros in Houston.

So, this year, allow me to declare that the “home-field advantage” that the Rangers have might not matter … unless of course they can peel away one win on their home field.

national news

How do we repair Congress?

The People’s House is in serious disarray, starting with the top of its leadership chain of command … namely because no one is on duty to bark out orders and demand members to do the right thing.

Thanks to intransigence by the MAGA cabal, the House has now gone almost three weeks without a speaker. He or she is responsible for setting the legislative agenda and for keeping the troops in line to enact legislation.

The MAGA gang forced former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to accept too many restrictions. He paid the price by performing the unconscionable act of working with Democrats to forge a deal to prevent a government shutdown.

No can do, Mr. Speaker, said the MAGA goons. One of them filed a motion to remove McCarthy and it worked. He’s out. It’s been a certifiable clusterf*** ever since!

The House of Reps is broken. It has been shattered because the MAGA cult is not interested in governing. It is interested in obstructing, in making headlines, of proving political points.

How do we repair Congress? Here’s an idea: Vote every single one of the MAGA cultists out of office in 2024 and replace them with politicians who know how government is supposed to work and are willing to operate its complicated machinery.

local news

No ‘trampling’ of conservatives!

Ted Cruz has it exactly wrong when he says that “conservative values” are being trampled.

The junior US senator from Texas issued a statement endorsing Caroline Fairly in her run for the Texas House District 87 seat being vacated by Four Price of Amarillo. He said this:

“An Amarillo native, community leader, and passionate conservative, Caroline Fairly understands that at a time when our conservative values are being trampled on, there is nothing more important than standing up and fighting for our Texan way of life. Caroline is dedicated to ensuring that the Panhandle remains a strong beacon of conservative, Texan values, which is why I am proud to endorse her for Texas House District 87.”

I do not know where on this good Earth the Cruz Missile believes “conservative values are being trampled on.” It sure ain’t in Texas. Not in the Legislature, or among Texas’s congressional delegation, or the courts (which we elect in this state on partisan ballots).

If anyone can complain about their views being trampled, it would progressives in this great state who seemingly cannot get their voices heard above the clamoring on the other side.

If “conservative values were being trampled,” then someone will have to explain how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton got acquitted of the impeachment charges leveled him.

local news

Severance coming … hmm?

Now comes a question that pops into my noggin whenever I hear about a senior public official being forced out of his high-paying, taxpayer-funded position.

Will he get a severance package to “soften” his landing?

The Princeton City Council on Friday accepted the resignation of City Manager Derek Borg, effective immediately. That tells me two things: He was told to resign and that had he resisted the council would have terminated him.

Does a city manager deserve a severance package when (a) he wasn’t doing the job, which prompted the meeting of the council in the first place and (b) resigns his office, which technically is a voluntary act.

Borg does not deserve a “golden parachute” to soften his landing. If he wasn’t performing to the standard set by his employers, the council, why “reward” him with a huge bonus … unless it’s an expression of thanks for saving the city from future grief?

I trust this information will come out in due course. I’m just offering an opinion on what I think should occur.

International news, Joe Biden, national news

Partisan fight over aid to fight Russia?

You live  long enough and you’re liable to see all kinds of manifestations of principle you once thought were set in steel-enforced concrete.

Take the U.S. position regarding aggression by Russian armed forces … for example.

Russia invaded Ukraine a year-plus ago. President Biden said this country would stand foursquare against the Russian aggressors. He vowed to stitch together a strong alliance of nations to resist the Russians. He succeeded.

We have helped Ukraine turn back the Russians. Ukrainian armed forces launched a counteroffensive. You’d think the Democratic U.S. president would enjoy the support of long-standing anti-Russian pols who belong to the Republican Party. Right? Guess again, pilgrim.

We now have the MAGA crowd resisting efforts to back Ukraine … for reasons that totally escape me! It has to be that their guy, the former POTUS, thinks the sun rises and sets on Russian goon/strongman Vladimir Putin.

The MAGA cult seemingly doesn’t believe as much in democratic principles as their political forebears — the real Republicans who fought the Russians and the Soviet Union with a passion. Then again, I don’t consider the MAGA morons to be real Republicans. They are political perverts who have twisted longstanding U.S. policy into something unrecognizable.

It is an evolution I never envisioned I would see.

education news

A sign of the times … eek!

If ever there was a sign that exemplified the era in which we live, it well might be this one, a picture of which I snapped at Lovelady High School in Princeton, Texas.

I am 73 years of age and the message on this sign — about armed security personnel using “whatever force necessary” to protect teachers, students and staff at Princeton Independent School District — is one I never envisioned seeing when I was coming of age.

Or, for that matter, when my sons were coming of age in Beaumont, Texas.

The spasm of gun violence in schools has prompted Princeton ISD to hire armed guards at all its campuses. The security personnel all are firearms-trained; some are retired police officers. Farmersville ISD, just seven miles east of Princeton, has a full-time police force with Texas-certified police officers on duty on its campuses.

This is what we have come to in this country. We must warn visitors to our schools that armed guards are on duty and will do whatever it takes to protect human life against loons with guns.

Amazing … simply amazing.

You want a sign of these troubled times? There it is, folks.

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