Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
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MAYBE NEW BEGINNING AHEAD The end of March marks a year since I've lost my freedom. That's how long I've been in lockdown. It wasn't only the worst year in our country's history, health wise it's been an awful year for me. One health problem after another, a dozen doctor visits with three different doctors and two hospital stays. The worse was a bleeding ulcer that had me bled out. I nearly waited too long on that one. My problems continued to mount but at least I dodged the...
COVID-19 RELIEF PACKAGE Cash should start flowing after the relief bill gets the final okay from the congress Wednesday and should go to the President this week for signing. Millions of Americans should see checks up to $1,400 land in their bank accounts in a few weeks. The one-time payments are part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. The Internal Revenue Service hasn't indicated how soon it will start to distribute the money. Analysts said the...
GOOD NEWS ON ECONOMIC FRONT Manufacturing in the U.S. hit a three-year high last month. A broad rally Monday sent the Dow Jones Industrial average more than 600 points higher and gave the S&P 500, its best day in nine months. Strong consumer demand for goods, increasing business investment, a roaring housing market and our global economic growth by the Biden Administration supporting our U.S. manufacturing, will benefit our total recovery. If passed by the Senate, the $1.9...
A WEEK FROZEN IN TIME This past week the state of Texas was hit with a winter storm that froze the state from the Sabine River to the Rio Grande River, from the Red River to the Gulf of Mexico. The state's hard freeze also exposed a fallacy in our power grid which unlike other states is controlled entirely by the leaders of the state. In Texas, every state wide office is dominated by one political party, the Republican Party. They alone are responsible for all that went wrong...
WAIT FOR VACCINE FINALLY OVER For several months now I have been living in fear of contacting coronavirus. Over those months what made it worse was that unexpected illness comprised my system even more. The hospital stays and visits to doctor's office made my fears even more frightening. Those are not good places to hang out while trying to avoid any kind of sickness. My goal was to get the vaccine before the virus got me. Well, this Monday, I'm glad to announce, I got my firs...
SABINE RIVER FORD SPONSORS RODEO Come watch the cowboys in action. Two big days, Friday, February 5 and Saturday, February 6, at Tin Top Arena, 3810 Old Peveto Rd., Orange. The rodeo starts at 7:00 P.M. Pre-event tickets on sale at Sabine River Ford, $10.00 each or at gate $15.00 each. Trey and Amie Smith are the top management team for Sabine River Ford. Trey is the son of Ross Smith and is an Orange native. Sabine River Ford is locally owned and operated. The Smith’s are l...
I’M WORKING BETWEEN DISTRACTIONS A BRIEF SUMMARY It’s never a good time to be admitted to the hospital, but now is really a bad time. Beds are not available at will and the ER walls are lined up with people lying on stretchers. After about 16 hours I got lucky and in the middle of the night I made it to a room. I swear the hospital style bed, those that the head and legs go up and down and in the middle leaves your rear sitting in a hole, was the very worst bed I have eve...
THE WAY I SEE IT Well, its come down to inauguration day, January 20, 2021. It really seemed like it was a long time getting here. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. becomes the 46th President of the United States. Making history is Kamala Harris, the first Black, South Asian and female to serve as Vice President. She is the 49th V.P. Today is a great day for America. I relate it to the days when Franklin D. Roosevelt took over as president from a failed president Hubert Hoover. President B...
ROGUE PRESIDENT TURNS ON COUNTRY For over four years I have tried to explain who Donald Trump was. For over 30 years I've known him to be a New York shyster. A very corrupt con man with over 4000 lawsuits filed against him for non payment to contractors and workers. Six times he was forced into bankruptcy. From day one he was unfit to be president of the United States; he had absolutely no government experience. He ran in the Republican Primary after considering the Democratic...
BATTLES BREW BUT DEMOCRACY WILL PREVAIL We are headed into the last 13 days of a four year nightmare. I told you in this column over four years ago that if Republicans nominated Trump he would wreck the GOP as we know it. Trump has presided over the most liberal administration since Jimmy Carter. For years, an issue Democrats couldn't claim was being the party of state rights, now Trump and the radical element of his base, have just handed it over to the Democrats by...
4: WORSE YEAR SINCE 1918 President Donald Trump's impeachment trial was overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic, a racial divide, and a president's baseless attacks on the election itself. The past 12 months have left the United States a different place. Even though the U.S. is 4% of the world's population, it has recorded nearly 345,000 deaths and 19.5 million cases of COVID-19, 21% of the world's deaths and cases. It didn't have to be this way. The Commander-in-Chief wasn't at...
MERRY CHRISTMAS, JOYEUX NOEL, FELIZ NAVIDAD Christmas this week will be like none we have ever seen before. A pandemic has ravaged the country. It’s not safe to travel or gather. The large family gatherings won’t be at Grandma’s house this year. Gatherings of cousins, who look forward to this once a year renewing of kinship and exchanging experiences, just won’t happen. Even though I believe it didn’t have to be this way, it is what it is. We still have a long way to go but...
LARGEST HEALTH CARE UNDERTAKING EVER The United States wasn’t the first to release the coronavirus vaccine; eight other countries beat us out, but now the U. S. has taken on the largest distribution of vaccine ever. Pfizer is a German owned company producing the vaccine. The U.S. has recorded more than 16 million cases of COVID-19 with 300,000 deaths and counting. The U.S. leads the world in deaths that have been averaging nearly 3,000 a day. The virus plays no favorites. Charley Pride, one of country music’s biggest stars, w...
PANDEMIC TAKES TOAL AT HOME It's amazing to me how many people won't accept the COVID surge that is right now spreading like wildfire throughout the country. The Thanksgiving spike is expected to arrive later this week. The Christmas Holiday will again grow the surge to new heights. A vaccine is coming but most Americans will not receive vaccinations until late March or April if they are still alive by then, over 500,000 people are expected to die by April. Millions of...
THE TIME TO MOVE ON "Have you no sense of decency." Those words, uttered by Army lawyer Joseph Welch to Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., during a 1954 congressional hearing, unmasked a bullying demagogue engaged in a crusade of smears and investigations that history now calls McCarthyism. And what of Trumpism? For weeks after Election Day, the defeated incumbent has spun fanciful conspiracy theories of a "rigged" and "fraudulent" election, all the while convincing tens of millions...
THOUGHTS AT THANKSGIVING Let us go forth to... Count our blessings, instead of our crosses. Count our gains, instead of our loses. Count our joys, instead of our woes. Count our friends, instead of our foes. Count our smiles, instead of our tears. Count our courage, instead of our fears. Count our full years, instead of our lean. Count our kind deeds, instead of our mean. Count our health, instead of our wealth. Count on God, instead of ourselves. With that I embark on...
THE PITIFUL STATE OF THE NATION In a couple of months we will put the most failed government in the last 100 years behind us and start to put our nation on a normal track. Because of so much sickness and 300,000 deaths, it's far worse than I had predicted four years ago. January 20, 2021 seems so far away and one can't predict the damage Donald Trump will inflict on this nation before we are rid of him. There will be plenty time to write about his legacy. First and foremost...
BIDEN BRINGS BREATH OF FRESH AIR Thank God the days of Trump are coming to an end. What we have known all along is that it wouldn’t be a normal departure. During the next 70 days you can’t start to imagine how dysfunctional and abnormal this disorderly transition will be. One thing Donald Trump wants all of us to believe about the transfer of power is that he did not lose this election, it was stolen from him. That’s it period. It’s the lie he will promote for as long as he l...
AN ELECTION FOR THE AGES It's Election Day 2020. Former V.P. Joe Biden challenging President Donald Trump trying to win a second term. For 50 years, I have made predictions. In 1996, I hit the exact number on the Electoral College vote. I predicted Bill Clinton, even after his sex scandal, would still win by a narrow margin. I said he would beat Bob Dole with 279 votes, nine more than needed. Four years later, I predicted his V.P., Al Gore, would win with 290 votes. I was on...
FOUR YEAR NIGHTMARE It was four years ago that I wrote if Trump was elected he would destroy the GOP as we know it. I pointed to how he wasn't a conservative. No record exist that he ever voted Republican. He conned the American people into believing he was New York's greatest businessman, the best deal maker and builder. It was lies then and its lies now. He was sued over 4,000 times, had to file bankruptcy six times. As for being the greatest builder, all you have to do is...
USA TODAY EDITORIAL BOARD: ELECT JOE BIDEN - REJECT DONALD TRUMP The USA TODAY Editorial Board has never endorsed a candidate for president. Until now. 'This is not a normal election, and these are not normal times.' In its 38 years of existence, the Editorial Board has never endorsed a candidate for president. The nonpartisan board hasn't recommended a nominee. Until now. "We don't do this eagerly," said editorial page editor Bill Sternberg. "We hope we don't have to do it...
ENOUGH ALREADY Like many of you I'm sure I'm storm weary. Storm fatigue is a common theme along the Gulf Coast after a season in which 10 storms made landfall on U.S. soil, breaking a century old record. One word to describe this season is historic. AccuWeather senior Meteorologist Mike Doll said, "You just don't see storms roll in like this." There is some good news however; a cold wave could sweep through late next week. Air in the Gulf should stabilize and depress any...
IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY It's just outrageous what is happening to our country. What started with just one case of coronavirus has led to a recession and a sick nation. Life at every turn is a far cry from what we enjoyed as normal. We are four percent of the world's population and yet because of ill prepared leadership we own 20 percent of all COVID-19 cases and world deaths despite many deaths in the United States being undercounted. In Texas, a Houston Chronicle...
BIDEN WINS CHAOTIC DEBATE It wasn't unexpected it's been chaotic for the entire Trump term. Trump was everything but presidential. It wasn't a slam dunk by Biden but he definitely won the debate. Trump, to me, proved that he doesn't believe he will be re-elected. I'm two hours past deadline so I can't comment any further but the fact checkers across the board say Biden won the debate. As for me, Trump's performance was embarrassing. He blew the election for sure. He can't...
THE FINANCIAL STATE OF THE NATION Here I sit trying to embark on another column that goes back over 50 years. Sometimes they come easy and other times it's a struggle. Then there are times like this when there is too much I'd like to comment on. COVID-19 marks over 200,000 deaths, approaching seven million cases so it will be around as deaths climbs. I'll have time to write about that later. One thing I haven't seen anything written about, nor have I heard conservatives...
