local news, media news

Explaining changes in the media climate

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In just a few weeks, I will receive an opportunity to do something I haven’t given much thought about doing … which is to tell a group of friends, associates and maybe even a stranger or two about why the media climate has changed so dramatically in the United States of America.

I will speak to the Farmersville Rotary Club, of which I have been a member for the past few years.

I told our club president this week that I have come up with a concept of the talk I intend to deliver. My task now is to organize it into a document that spells out what I have witnessed and what I have experienced.

I have told friends over the years that I was a victim of the changing media climate. Readers of this blog have read about my tale already. My daily newspaper career came crashing to a halt in August 2012. I have moved on and have rebuilt my life. I had hoped to retire gracefully from my job in Amarillo, but I was denied that opportunity when the publisher decided to hire someone else to do the job I had done there for 18 years. But, hey … that was then. As for the here and now, I am still writing for newspapers, as a freelancer who writes for a group of weeklies in Collin County. Therefore, I am not extinct!

I am not alone among journalists who have been shown the door in unceremonious fashion. Declining newspaper circulation provides plenty of testimony to what has happened to that medium.

Now I get to explain it all to my friends in Farmersville. Why write about this in my blog? I just want to share with you the opportunity I have received to put a little personal perspective on on a worldwide phenomenon.

The good news for me is that my talk will be brief. The difficulty might come in trying to condense it into a bite-sized tale that I believe will have a happy ending.

media news, national news

Change of heart on pledge

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A few years ago — I cannot remember precisely when — I pledged to no longer make a resolution to begin the new year.

Why promise to do something that I didn’t expect to be able to do, or so I thought in the moment. Today I am taking back that pledge and declaring a new year resolution for 2026. I believe I can keep this one alive and functioning. I am pledging to use High Plains Blogger to make life as miserable as possible for Donald J. Trump, his administration of yes men and women and the MAGA crowd that remains loyal (for reasons that escape me) to the pretender in chief. I am acutely aware that my reach is somewhat limited. I don’t have a huge audience that reads my rants. I’ll start by asking those who do read them and who agree with my view that Trump is a threat to this country, that he is unfit for the office he occupies and he must be stopped … well, you can share those thoughts on your social media network of friends and acquaintances. Those of you who read this blog but who continue to support the dipshit in chief, you can react to my rants any way you see fit. It’s your call. I’ll be commenting throughout the year on issues that present themselves. My immediate aim is to flip the U.S. House from Republican to Democrat when the ballots are counted for the midterm election. One more word on this issue. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knock on my door, I’ll have my birth certificate and passport handy to prove that I am an American patriot who has read the Constitution … and who understands the free speech liberty it grants for all citizens of this great country.
economic news, military news, national news

Trump: RINO in chief

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Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, the American Republican Party stood for principles the party deemed to be hard and fast … not to be trifled with.

Republicans opposed adding to the national debt. They opposed deficit spending each year on the federal budget. The GOP stood firm against “nation-building” wars overseas. Republicans stood with Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in passing the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts of 1964 and 1965. The GOP saw the Soviet Union as a national enemy and committed to the destruction of the tyranny preached in the Kremlin.

Hmmm. Those days are gone. Likely forever. Never to be seen again.

Donald Trump is now what I call the Republican In Name Only in chief. He is leading a party that bears no resemblance to the party of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon.

I am trying to imagine President Reagan allowing the national debt to balloon to trillions of dollars. Or President Lincoln allowing the party to embrace white supremacists. Or President Nixon defending the USSR’s direct descendants, Russia, in disputes involving U.S. intelligence findings.

What we have now in charge in D.C., ladies and gents, is a party that has betrayed all those core values. It’s not just the president. He has GOP members of Congress, who are standing with him.

They all — not just Donald Trump — deserve our everlasting condemnation for the direction they have taken this great country.

International news

Words are failing me

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Allow me this brief admission, which is that my meager command of English is failing me as I search for expressions to condemn the actions of the charlatan who sits in the Oval Office.

I am running out of ways to knee-cap Donald Trump’s efforts to disobey international law, to ignore the federal courts and to seize control of a sovereign government because its leader follows policies that Trump abhors.

Get this, kids. Now Trump appears to be ratcheting up the chatter associated with a possible takeover of Greenland, an Arctic island that exists as a territory of Denmark.

Greenland is no speck in the Arctic Ocean. It covers about 836,000 square miles, or about three times as much land mass as Texas. Someone will have to explain to me — in language I can understand — precisely why Trump would want Greenland. It’s covered in ice most of the year. Almost no human being lives there. But Trump seems to suggest he wants it. What the ever-lovin’ hell has POTUS been swilling?

The Danes aren’t going to surrender Greenland. Denmark, just like Venezuela, is a sovereign nation and it has held Greenland for several hundred years.

I cannot grasp whatever reason is rattling around Trump’s vacuous skull about why he wants Greenland. I am going to have to settle on a conclusion that Trump’s delusions of godhood and grandeur need to be reined in … right now!

military news

Punished for … speaking the truth!

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I know I heard this correctly, but I still cannot believe it’s for real, that it’s not some sort of sick joke being played on Americans who believe in the rule of law.

Yes, what I understand is that the moron pretending to be secretary of defense wants to downgrade U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly’s naval retirement rank and dock his Navy pension for — get ready for this — telling service personnel to follow the law and not carry out orders they know to be illegal.

Kelly is an Arizona Democrat who has been singled out by the Pentagon pervert Pete Hegseth for committing what he calls an “act of sedition.” I am trying to wrap my noodle around this but I cannot even begin to grasp what Hegseth is suggesting.

It is seditious for Kelly, a decorated retired Navy pilot and former space shuttle astronaut, to remind military personnel of the oath they took when they joined the armed forces? Hegseth is saying such a patently ridiculous thing about a man who flew combat missions in Iraq and who wore a Navy uniform for 40 years before being elected to the Senate.

Kelly is a patriot. He served heroically while flying jet fighters for the Navy. Sen. Kelly is serving with honor and distinction representing Arizonans on Capitol Hill. He merely has spoken the truth to military personnel and reminded them of the oath they took to defend and protect the Constitution.

And now we have an idiot defense secretary threatening to punish him for exercising a right of liberty that the Constitution guarantees!

Pete Hegseth belongs in the loony bin.

military news

MAGA loses its original meaning

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MAGA is an acronym that’s become a word, kind of like SCUBA, FUBAR, ZIP code and TEA Party … but it has morphed into a new meaning that is getting hammered beyond recognition by the current numbskull in chief.

MAGA means Make America Great Again, as if this nation has lapsed into non-greatness, which it hasn’t.

These days you hear MAGA minions say it means simply to put “America first” over other nations’ interest. What in the world. therefore, is up with the United States sending Army special forces into Caracas to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro? How in the world is that putting America first? Someone tell me, please.

So, we have Maduro and his wife in custody. They have been indicted on drug charges. They’ll stand trial. Any bets on whether they get convicted?

Donald Trump has violated international law by seizing a sovereign head of state and then vowing to “run” a sovereign nation until a reasonable transition can occur. The irony of the transition statement is too rich to ignore, given what he attemped to do on Jan. 6, 2021 by inciting the frontal attack on Congress as it sought to certify the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election … which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Trump’s invasion of Venezuela, an effort to seize and sell oil from that nation’s rich reserves, is an affront to this nation. He hasn’t made America great in any form or fashion. He has committed this nation possibly to the kind of “endless war” he said he wanted to end.

When in this world is Congress to awaken to what so many of us are witnessing in real time, which is the fundamental usurping of congressional authority to declare war?

International news, military news

What? We’re going to ‘run’ Venezuela?

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Donald John Trump got elected to his office on the basis of a number of key promises he blurted out while campaigning.

One of them was to “end the pointless wars that seem to go on forever.”

Well … kids. The moron in chief has just gotten us into another war. He launched a mission to take out the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife. And now he says the United States is going to “run” Venezuela.

What in the name of hostile takeover is this dipshit doing?

Young Americans are going to die now carrying out the mission of running a once-sovereign nation. You can take that to the bank. Does anyone alive with half a noodle in their skull believe the Venezuelans are going to roll over and let the United States take over governing their country? And that they will do so without a fight?

Let’s be clear on one point. Trump’s attack on Venezuela does follow a similar pattern launched in 1989 when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Panama to fetch Manuel Noriega, remove him from power and take him to the United States to stand trial for drug trafficking. I don’t recall President Bush ordering troops to run Panama.

Trump has gone mad. Regime change now appears to be the motivation behind those idiotic strikes on alleged “drug boats” in Caribbean Sea. Nicolas Maduro has been taken to the United States to stand trial as well on drug charges.

I cannot ascribe motives to why Trump took this action. Maduro was a sovereign head of state. I get that he’s a bad guy. He’s not the only one out there.

One must ask these key questions, given that two of our nation’s adversaries, China and Russia, are watching this clusterfu** unfold. What does this action mean for finding an end to the Ukraine war and will our incursion into Venezuela embolden China to do something similar to Taiwan?

God help us …

Sports news

You go, Philip Rivers!

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Philip Rivers’s story has captivated me in a way I never expected and to be honest, I am not sure I want it to end.

Rivers is a quarterback who retired after the 2020 season after many stellar seasons with the San Diego Chargers. Being a staunch fan of the Oakland Raiders, Rivers didn’t really capture my attention even as he ran up magnificent stats while QB’ing the Chargers. I certainly knew of Rivers and figured long ago he would be a first-ballot lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he became eligible for induction.

This would have been the year when the Hall of Fame would call his name. Except that the Indianapolis Colts needed a quarteback. So, the Colts called the 44-year-old father of 10 and grandpa to one baby. He was living quietly in his native Alabama coaching high school football. The Colts tendered him an offer he couldn’t turn down, so Rivers said, “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

Here’s what makes this story — in my view — so compelling. Rivers’s Hall of Fame eligibility has been pushed back at least another five years. He’ll get the call from the HoF when the time comes. He hasn’t said that he’s done playing tackle football for keeps. You see, he found out while playing for the Colts that he can still play this young man’s game.

The Colts didn’t make the playoffs and their season is about to end. Rivers will suit up but won’t play Indy’s final game. My quandary as a fan is whether to suggest Rivers should call it quits for keeps or keep the phone nearby in case some other team needs a QB in a pinch.

It’s an enthralling story and I was delighted to see an old football warhorse called back to active duty.

I’m proud of Philip Rivers.

national news

Wanted: Basic human decency … please!

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Of all the areas where Donald Trump is deficient in the only office he ever has sought and held, I have settled finally on the one aspect of this individual’s being I find most lacking.

Basic human decency!

Trump lacks any semblance of the kind of humanity we have grown to expect from the person sitting in the Oval Office of the White House. Trump has demonstrated his lack of decency in the most profound ways imaginable in the wake of the deaths of Rob and Michelle Reiner.

Instead of remaining silent or at least offering a boiler-plate response that offers good wishes to the loved ones of the acclaimed filmmaker and his wife, Trump exhibited a level of abject boorishness millions of us never have seen in a U.S. president. On top of that, he followed his Reiner response with a hideous reaction to the passing of the daughter of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Tatiana Schlossberg, who died of cancer just the other day.

This is the kind of thing too many Americans have grown to expect from Trump. He actually declared in that ghastly Truth Social message that Rob and Michelle Reiner died of what he called Trump Derangement Syndrome. Yep … that’s where it ended for Reiner who admittedly was a stern and ferocious critic of Trump.

Rather than leave the dispute in the dust where it belongs, Trump chose to rub the wound raw while the Reiners’ loved ones were mourning their horrific murders.

This is the kind of individual Americans elected not once, but twice, as president of the United States. What in the world does this say about us, not just about the moron chosen to lead the world’s most indispensable nation?

We are facing an opportunity this coming November to begin to right the ship of state by turning Congress over to the loyal opposition Democrats who stand an excellent chance of seizing back one of the three co-equal branches of government.

Maybe then we might see a return of basic human decency … in the Capitol Building.

Uncategorized

Why run up the score?

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Oh, man … it hurts to make this comment criticizing a college football team I want to win the NCAA championship, but I have to speak out at what I saw at the end of the Orange Bowl game on Thursday.

I watched the University of Oregon score touchdown when none was needed to ensure their victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

The Ducks were leading 16-0 with about 30 seconds left in the game. They had stuffed the Tech offense thoroughly during the game. Head coach Dan Lanning called a time out and the Ducks returned to score a touchdown to make the final score 23-0.

Oregon could have simply snapped the ball to run out the clock. There was no time for the Red Raiders to score twice and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Sometimes I just don’t quite understand what goes through coaches’ minds in the heat of the moment. I just believe Coach Lanning could have let the clock secure the win all by itself. Don’t misunderstand me. I am glad the Ducks won … but still.

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