WHO CARES FOR KIDS?

There’s an old saying that the master who does not hold his servants accountable will end up getting very negative results.  We citizens of Texas need to take a hard look at those who serve us in Austin.  A district court has documented that approximately 700 small children have died from negligence or abuse because Children’s Protective Services is mismanaged, grossly understaffed, and underfunded.  Such a shame in view of the fact that the Attorney General, Commissioner of Agriculture and other elected state officials have squandered several hundred thousands of dollars rewarding ex-employees who no longer work—and have done so illegally.

We rank 37^th in support of our public education system, and our leaders refuse to replace the $5 billion+ dollars deducted from the education budget two sessions ago.  They smugly stand idly by while even the Supreme Court, in its attempt to justify their inaction, says that our system has many, many faults, but it meets minimum standards.  Ask yourself whether or not you would trust a baby doctor—who clearly has many faults and shortcomings as a physician, yet meets minimum standards—with the handling of your child.

 The Legislature in its panic to avoid addressing a shortage of tax money has driven us into debt by over 30 billion dollars, and yet our highway system is in sore need of fixing.  A substantial number of our bridges have been ruled to be substandard by reputable engineering investigations.  Yet there is not one hint of how we could raise additional revenue to address our crumbling transportation infrastructure. 

Our governor steadfastly refuses to accept several billion dollars in federal funds which are available to us for health purposes while we continue to lead the nation in uninsured citizens. 

Come on people, there’s got to be more important issues for us to dwell on rather than who goes to the potty where; whether we wear our guns inside our coat or out; and whether or not we should allow our public schools to spend $62 million dollars on football stadiums.

It is past time for us to take a more enlightened view of our public servants and stop blindly voting because of a label.  Self-proclaimed arch-conservatives may conserve a dollar or two, but they are certainly not conserving a bright future for our posterity or the future of this state. We all need to be better motivated to participate in the elections and be better informed on how we hold our public officials accountable.

SOUTHEAST TEXANS

For 32 and one-half years I represented the people of Jefferson, Orange and other Southeast counties in the State Legislature. I found Southeast Texans hardworking, honest, ready to help their neighbors. The majority of Southeast Texans are folks who work for their paydays to support their families, but most of all, Southeast Texas were discriminating and savvy about the people they voted for. I submit, as well as hope and pray, most are too savvy to buy the huckster-type sales pitch of Donald Trump.

I have found through a long career of playing competitive ball that the guys who were the first to brag on themselves were usually mediocre players attempting to inflate their own worth to the team.  I’ve not seen a bigger braggart than Mr. Trump.  He’s the best negotiator, best Christian, best military strategist, best businessman, best lover and one of the richest billionaires in the country.  It has been difficult for me to understand why a man with all those qualities has been so reluctant to reveal his income tax records so a lot of that bragadociousness could be verified.

My father told me a long time ago a fellow who will lie to you will steal from you.  I have been keeping a record of the outright lies repeatedly told and doubled down on by Mr. Trump.  Here are a few.

Trump claims he was never in bankruptcy because the four bankruptcies he was involved in were bankruptcies of "corporate entities" ... albeit these were corporate entities in which he had lured people to invest. 

Trump claims he always opposed the war in Iraq as well as assisted the rebels in Libya.  Videos of him saying to the contrary are clear evidence he plainly mis-spoke or outright lied about this.

Trump claims Hillary wants to repeal the second amendment.  There’s been no such proposal from Hillary Clinton who has proposed some moderate restrictions on the purchase of guns such as background checks for all and stopping potential terrorists from being able to purchase a weapon. 

Mr.Trump vowed he would immediately expel all undocumented immigrants, restrict anyone of the Islamic faith from entering America and self-fund his political campaign to avoid conflicts of interest.  Mr. Trump has backed down on nearly all of these commitments.

Although Mr. Trump is trying desperately to appeal to the religious right in the coming election, he has boasted of his sexual dalliances, and obviously engaged in adultery and sexual misconduct for which he claims to have never sought forgiveness.  He claims a dedication to the Christian faith but cannot think of a favorite scripture in the Bible—and when attempting to quote one, couldn’t get it right. 

He continues to degrade women with such statements as there is, “No such thing as a 10 without large breasts and a nice rearend.”

He promises great results without filling in the details of how they would be accomplished other than illegal or outlandish type strategies.  As an example, to fight and rid theworld from ISIS, he proposes killing their families, torturing them with waterboarding, putting religious mosques under surveillance or simply “bombing thehell out of them.”  Unfortunately, he also thinks he could make the world safer by having America withdraw from NATO or allowing Japan or South Korea to be armed with nuclear weapons.

His criticism of world trade is clearly hypocritical in that he has imported non-union labor from overseas for some of his projects, and has the majority of Trump ties, furniture, clothing and other products produced out of the UnitedStates by virtual slave labor.

If the working folks of Southeast Texas believe Donald Trump—born rich and made richer by taking advantage in sly, unscrupulous deals—could really empathize or have much in common with the working folks down here, they are seriously flawed in their thinking.  I hope and trust the people of this corner of Texas are still the good, right-thinking folks I have known the majority of my life.