Opinion: Only problems will come from Texas minting its own currency

Re: “Suit says Texas on way to minting own money,” Business, Monday:

An alarm bell should ring as Texans witness the state “gearing up to create its own money.”

While pretending to suggest they are merely creating “collectible coins and notes,” they are showing Texas residents a possible glimpse of our future, and our past, Texas money.

More will come of the state’s plan as there is an end game here that does not bode well.

The U.S. Constitution “allows states to recognize gold and silver as legal tender,” but it forbids states “from printing or minting their own legal tender.”

During the Civil War, the Confederacy created a currency that was virtually worthless after the war.

Texas already has a law in place, House Bill 1056, that “recognizes silver and gold to be legal tender,” but the state appears to be moving toward a much “bigger” plan by backing that up with Texas coinage and Texas currency.

Opposition to the U.S. Constitution causes trouble.

If you “show me the money,” I’ll show you a problem.

READ MORE: Expert: Confusion over “official” status helping new Texas-backed coins surge past private business

Re: “Parental rights at heart of cellphone dispute,” Editorial, Sunday:

In a state where the population is armed to the teeth and buying a gun is easier than getting a driver’s license, cellphones aren’t just gadgets. They are lifelines.

If the Texas Legislature wants to draft a cellphone policy that is coherent and reasonable for parents and students, they should probably quit overthinking it and simply plug a prompt into Google Gemini or ChatGPT.

How about injecting artificial intelligence into state law?

Now, that would be a revolutionary use of intelligence, artificial or otherwise.

Re: “Earth Day tells us what we need to do,” Editorial, Wednesday:

Regarding the state of our environment, the editorial says: “Decades later, the urgency remains, and much of what (Rachel) Carson advocated for is no longer viewed as radical but courageous and mainstream.”

The last half of the 20th century has, by and large, been fruitful for this country regarding air and water quality.

Far from perfect, but considering we had 3.7 billion people in the world in 1970 and have more than 8 billion today, I’m surprised by the bit of progress we’ve seen.

Fact is, though: The nonvisible stuff is still killing nature’s structured ecosystems.

Humanity depends on these ecosystems, and the overabundance of greenhouse gases is making for breakdowns. We must keep alert to the fact that what lingers is not only easy to miss but can reach dangerous tipping points.

I’ve been around for a good while, having lived through the terms of 14 presidents.

Some have been good at their job, and others not so much. Yet they were all, at least arguably, at a minimum, qualified to serve.

That is, until the current one. I’ve never been so concerned about the future of our country.
 
President Donald Trump is the worst president to have ever served, and he consistently demonstrates he’s totally unfit for the office.

His intellectual capacity is horrible. He’s childish and immature. His instincts are poor, as is his capacity for adaptability.

The tariffs catastrophe, the Iran war debacle, the increasingly rising cost of living and his horrendous immigration policies are just a few of his self-imposed disasters. Our allies on the world stage are now distancing themselves from this chaotic mess our country finds itself in.
 
Are there any grown-ups in the current administration who could act as guardrails to keep the president in check? It doesn’t appear so.

This is how democracy dies.

The world can debate whether Iran’s efforts to achieve the ability to deliver nuclear holocaust were about to be realized.

However, no one can deny that Iran’s leaders have for decades promised “death to Israel,” and “death to America” and Western countries.

Iran’s funding and support of terrorist proxies has resulted in continual terrorism. The most memorable horrific act being the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion, killing some 1,200 peaceful Israeli citizens in southern Israel.

It’s also undeniable that negotiations and appeasement have not deterred Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

President Donald Trump decided the risk was too great, and thus we find ourselves, along with Israel, targeting Iran’s war machine and maniacal leadership.

America’s other allies are denying their airspace for U.S. military flights in our fight.

Let’s think about this. For more than 75 years, America has been the predominant player providing the defense of Europe at the expense of American taxpayers.

Does anyone seriously believe they would come to our aid if and when we needed them?

It’s time to exit NATO.