About 150 years ago, Gen. Philip Sheridan was sweltering in the relentless heat of a Texas summer. He was not happy: “If I owned Texas and all Hell,” he groused, “I would rent out Texas...
Two pieces of good advice: (1) “Never sign nothin’ by neon,” and (2) “Never negotiate with snakes.” But Joe Biden violated both rules this year, getting out-negotiated by Senate Republicans (and their tag-along Democrat, Joe...
The political extremists demanding that government control every woman’s personal reproductive decisions claim that they are “pro-life.” But that’s a rhetorical fraud. Look at their overall policy agenda and you’ll see that they are merely...
When you think of Americans whose music has made a lasting difference, you might think of Scott Joplin, Woody Guthrie, Maybelle Carter, Harry Belafonte… or Roger Payne. Who? I came across Payne in a June...
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty scornfully declares that, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean.” So what does “woke” mean? It’s become the pet political aspersion...
Years ago, a Texas lawmaker got caught using his official position to enrich himself by taking money from special interests, in exchange for voting their way. The culprit did not deem this as corrupt, but...
The six-person majority of far-right “Supremes” who presently dominate America’s judicial system seems intent on demonstrating that having a seat on our Supreme Court does not mean there is anything Supreme about them. Consider one...
As Scottish literary giant Robert Burns wrote, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men/Go oft awry.” His 1785 poem, titled “To A Mouse,” could be directed today at the right-wing sloganeers who’ve been scheming so...
Why would your local newspaper not even mention an important local news story? Perhaps because it’s a damning story about the conglomerate owner of the paper. This month, hundreds of journalists working for major dailies...
The beauty of impeaching a public official is that it recalibrates the standard for political morality, letting other politicos gauge just how low they can go. Consider two recent Texas examples. First came Rep. Bryan...