Doing a 180 on Brandon Gill
Let me be honest, I voted for Brandon Gill as our representative in Congress. At the time, I was excited by the young financier with innovative ideas, and his short bios in our papers were very likable.
However, today with all the chaos and overreach occurring in the executive branch of our government, I have become more aware of a different side to Brandon that I think everyone in our district needs to be aware of.
As a first-year representative, Brandon has aligned himself with Marjorie Taylor Greene, the often loud and confrontational representative from Georgia. She has said that 9/11 was a hoax, supports white supremacists and supports execution of Democratic politicians.
He is co-authoring a bill to abolish the Fogarty International Center. This entity is responsible for scientific research on infectious diseases at home and abroad. As an example, they have successfully obtained grants for treating tuberculosis in rural Georgia — a disease that is now spreading in Texas. They also have successfully obtained grants for cancer research, HIV, malaria and other diseases that have been increasing in regularity in the Southern U.S.
He recently called for the deportation of Ilhan Omar, a representative from Minnesota. She has been in the office since 2019 and is an American citizen. However, she is not the right political party, religion or culture, so should not be allowed to stay in the U.S.
I cannot change my vote today, but I will be much better informed in the next.
Carole Disbrow,
Flower Mound
Keep Brian Beck on the Denton City Council
Just wanted to give a shout out in support of Brian Beck’s candidacy to be reelected to the City Council as our District 2 representative.
I have followed Brian through the years when he sat on the Planning and Zoning Commission and his early years as a District 2 council member. He’s developed the leadership skills that we need on the council.
Brian responds to citizens’ concerns, as he did with our HOA board that was facing a development of high-rise apartments adjacent to our small neighborhood behind the Sonic on East University Drive at Old North Road.
Through his skill and knowledge of how city government and corporate developments coexist, Brian was able to assist our board’s steering committee, which gained a better zoning district for this development, locking in changes to the development plan that gave us greater setbacks from three-story apartment complexes and elevations that aesthetically matched our small cottage-like homes.
We need to keep Brian working for all of us in District 2 and the city as a whole. Please vote for him either by early voting, which begins on April 22, or on election day, May 3.
Larry Beck,
Denton
What happened to that beacon on the Hill?
This week, the United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.
Civicus, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world,” announced the inclusion of the U.S. on the nonprofit’s first watchlist of 2025, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia. The watchlist is part of the Civicus Monitor, which tracks developments in civic freedoms across 198 countries.
The decision to add the U.S. to the first 2025 watchlist was made in response to what the group described as the “Trump administration’s assault on democratic norms and global cooperation,” according to Mandeep Tiwana, the co-secretary general of Civicus. The organization warned that these decisions “will likely impact civic freedoms and reverse hard-won human rights gains around the world.”
Civicus described Trump’s actions since taking office as an “unparalleled attack on the rule of law” not seen “since the days of McCarthyism in the twentieth century,” stating that these moves erode the checks and balances essential to democracy. While the Trump administration often says they support fundamental freedoms and individual rights, like free speech, Tiwana believes that the administration seems “to be wanting to support these only for people who they see as agreeing with them,” with retribution for those who don’t agree with them. Tiwana says that the U.S. is engaging in a “zero-sum politics game.”
Take heed, America!
Kim Robinson,
Denton
Texas doesn’t need a DOGE
Like the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, Texas now has its own “Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee.”
“This is about, ‘How do we fundamentally change the way the state operates so you can do it in a much more efficient way?’” stated the chair of the new committee, Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake.
Rep. Capriglione’s committee must consider some facts before embarking on a copycat cost-cutting campaign.
Texas ranks 45th in the nation for child health care access, has one of the highest maternity death rates and the worst prenatal care in the nation.
The state’s K-12 education ranking is 29th of the 50 states, and teachers’ salaries are far below the national average.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave Texas a “C” rating for the condition of our roads, highways and bridges just last year.
And, Texas has the 26th highest rate of gun deaths in the country.
In reality, we need and deserve a better, not an undefined “more efficient,” way for the state to operate. The funding and adoption of laws and policies that truly protect and support the health and well-being of all Texans demand a Delivery of Government Excellence Committee, not a politically motivated reduction of already shamefully inadequate services.
Ed Soph,
Denton
An Ode to History
History may not repeat itself
But so often it will rhyme*
And hence from the Oval Office
We hear a verse and line
An old familiar poem
From a far-away tea time.
John Thorngren,
Denton
Trump hasn’t kept many promises, but he has kept one
Donald Trump promised to lower inflation and food prices on day one of presidency or even before. He didn’t keep the promise.
He promised to end the Russian-Ukrainian war on day one. He has not kept his promise. He has initiated peace talks with the communist dictator of Russia while leaving Ukrainian leadership on the sideline. Going into the talks his team has already given Russia almost everything they want.
The Trump/Musk administration is doing a diplomatic 180 with tariffs and criticisms of our European and North American allies while giving communist Russia whatever it wants. Republicans in Congress have decided to remain quiet. Who knew having no backbone affected vocal cords?
Trump did keep his promise to be a dictator on day one. He has used an executive order to try to nullify birthright citizenship guaranteed in the Constitution. No one should be surprised since he advocated suspending the Constitution in 2020 when he lost the election but wanted to stay in power.
He has continued his dictatorial behavior by refusing to follow laws passed by Congress creating and funding various departments and agencies. Again, Republicans in Congress have remained mostly silent.
The Musk-Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to rule that the three branches of government are no longer coequal. The big question is what happens if the court disagrees. Trump has already fired several top military generals who seem to be more loyal to the Constitution than to Trump. Are we connecting the dots?
Dalton Gregory,
Denton
Texas teachers should really consider a strike
After teachers in the reddest of the red states, West Virginia, went on strike, I am mystified why teachers in Texas don’t; instead, they attempt to negotiate with scurrilous legislators, who make a pretense of holding hearings and then do what they want.
Children suffer the most because the Legislature provides overcrowded classrooms, mind-numbing textbooks, and now measles and other diseases. Kids and their teachers may be killed or maimed in the classroom. Ultimately, children are not acquiring skills needed to succeed in life. Vouchers are coming, which provide an even worse alternative than public school. The corrupt provide an even more corrupt system of compensation, merit pay.
According to the Constitution, no one can be forced to work, and those who choose to work, have a right to negotiate working conditions. The piddly contract that individual teachers sign protects the state, not teachers, because it is not fairly negotiated.
Teachers work under horrid conditions, but they have a right not to work until good conditions and compensations are negotiated. The legislators are stubborn mules and need a 2-by-4 across the chest. If teachers strike, what do they lose? Low pay, bad conditions and lousy retirement benefits.
Walter Lindrose,
Denton
Peeling back the skin on Trump
Though he has done a couple good things, I am more convinced that Donald Trump is just a piece of crap. We could discuss several issues but let’s concentrate on Ukraine.
First, Trump said that Ukraine started the war with Russia. The whole world knows that it was Russia. More of Trump’s crap. Then Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator. The world knows that Putin is a dictator, and Trump is turning out to be a piece of crap dictator. When there was a summit for ending that war, the United States and Vladimir Putin were invited, but not Ukraine.
With that backdrop, understand that the White House meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy and JD Vance did not disintegrate. It was a preplanned ambush. They said that Zelenskyy was ungrateful. Throughout the years, Zelenskyy has expressed gratitude. They never gave him a chance at the meeting. All Zelenskyy wanted to do in exchange for giving Trump all his rare minerals was to gain some security in exchange. It was never to be.
That ambush said why don’t you wear a suit? In Ukraine, that is a suit. Did you ever see Elon Musk ever show up at the White House with a button-down shirt and necktie? He is always wearing a T-shirt.
Then that piece of crap angrily said to Zelensky, “You’re gambling with World War III.” What an insane statement.
I believe that if we peeled back the skin on Trump, underneath would be a Russian communist.
Jim Stodola,
Denton
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