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Sucking it up with an early vote

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Command decision time at blogging HQ, which happens to be my North Texas man cave.

I have decided to cast my vote early in this year’s election, Early voting begins in Texas on Monday and it is possible I’ll be one of the first voters in line at my Princeton polling place.

As many of you know, I have preferred to wait until Election Day to cast my ballot. Not this year. I am going to get my preferences logged into the secure system early. I am going to get my civic duty out of the way.

Then I’ll just wait for the end of the campaign to exhaust itself until Nov. 5.

My concerns about candidates’ messing up between now and Election Day remain. I am just going to presume that the candidates of my choice will keep it clean until Election Day.

I also am announcing my plan to split my ticket. I am going to vote for some Republicans running in down-ballot contests. You know all about my preferences for the very top of the ballot. I won’t revisit those choices here or seek to explain them to you.

There is no point to trying to persuade readers of this blog about the unfitness of the Republican presidential nominee or try to explain how an incumbent US senator can hightail it to Cancun while hundreds of Texans were dying in the midst of the February 2021 deep freeze that smothered virtually the entire state.

Just know that I remain faithful to opposing straight-ticket voting. That principle remains intact.

Let it never be said that this old man is too hidebound to change the way he casts his ballot. I might not vote early in the next election, or the one after that.

This one? I hear the sound of my conscience telling me to do it.

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Harris enrages Trump’s base … good for her!

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Vice President Kamala Harris is employing a politically risky strategy as she enters the home stretch in her bid to become the 47th president of the United States.

Oh, how I want this effort to pay off.

She is talking to Donald Trump-friendly media organizations and is telling their audiences the hard truth about their hero.

He is a weakling masquerading as a tough guy, she has said. Trump panders to dictators, seeking favors in return. Harris reminds her audiences it takes far more strength to build people up than to tear them down.

We all know what this will do to the MAGA base that continues to support this buffoon. It will rile ’em up, get ’em stoked, provoke the MAGA morons to levy threats.

The VP is banking on another outcome as well, that she will rile women around the nation who want to restore women’s reproductive rights, who have grown weary of Trump’s dark vision for the future of the country.

Kamala Harris is mining the depths of the electorate for Republicans who can be persuaded that Trump’s darkness has no place in a country that for centuries has been the source of eternal optimism.

You are aware of my bias. I’m all in on what Kamala Harris’s 11th-hour political strategy is seeking to do for her. May it serve to persuade others of the danger that Trump presents for the nation we all love.

national news, political news

We aren’t that dumb … are we?

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I have been wrestling with a nagging notion ever since the campaign between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump began taking shape.

It goes something like this: Are American voters really and truly ready for forgive the actions of a candidate who vows to weaponize the Justice Department to get back at his foes? Are we really prepared to hand over the nuclear launch codes to someone who cherishes love notes from dictators intent on destroying this country? Do we really want to entrust the health and welfare of ;poor Americans to someone who doesn’t give a rat’s rear end about them?

If we are, then we’re in a world of hurt, man.

I don’t know whether Trump will be able to win this election. Late polling indicators are causing me some mild dyspepsia. The idea that Americans would embrace this clown — whom they fired four years by 7 million votes — simply boggles my noodle.

His recent lies about the government being unwilling to assist storm victims are laced with ignorance, buttressed by loathing of those victims.

Furthermore, as a veteran who was sent to Vietnam in the late 1960s, I resent viscerally his description of my fellow vets as “losers and suckers” who answered their country’s call to report for duty in a hostile-fire zone.

But that, too, is OK with many of the MAGA cultists who comprise the bulk of this guy’s base.

If this guy can pull this charade off … well, God help us.

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RIP, Republican Party

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May a once-great political party rest in peace while those who remain loyal to what it once stood for find the courage to shirk its current incarnation.

Republicans, you have a stern challenge ahead of you … even if hell freezes over and the MAGA warrior in chief actually wins the 2024 presidential election.

I fear the once-Grand Old Party has been hijacked by a huckster disguised as a politician. The men and women who are its stoutest adherents all comprise a group of dimly lit chuckleheads who somehow have managed to be heard above the din in this wildest of presidential election campaigns.

The MAGA cult would have us believe that Democrats caused Hurricanes Helene and Milton to ravage the Southeast. They also seem to believe that immigrants are eating our puppies and kitties. They also continue to insist that the2020 presidential election was stolen from their guy, who actually was indicted by the US House for …. trying to steal the election.

Republicans once called a candidate’s character to be the end-all to determine their fitness for high office.  These days? They embrace the blathering of a boastful Bozo.

More items are revealed daily.  My latest favorite involves reporting by Robert Woodward that the 45th POTUS offered to give COVID test kits to Russian thug Vladimir Putin while they were being rationed to Americans who also were suffering — and dying — from the killer virus.

The Republican Party I knew as a child and as a much younger adult no longer exists.

I am going to miss it as long as it remains captive to the gullible goons who call its cadence.

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Sabol earns her spurs

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DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Our first overnight trip away from home resulted early in a case of my new puppy, Sabol, showing her intelligence.

She’s a keeper.

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of what happened.

My brother -in-law and I went out for breakfast this morning. I sent Sabol outside to take care of business before we left. She came back inside and I closed the back door to the patio. We were gone for an hour and returned home.

Awaiting us in the driveway was my pooch. Her tail was wagging and she said something that I interpreted to be, “Hey Dad and Uncle Mike, I’m glad you came back!”

How in the world did she get out?

I checked the back door. It was wide open. Sabol pushed it open and ventured out to wait for us to return.

This is an astounding event on a couple of levels. First, she was in a location that was new to her. She could have panicked and run off, but she didn’t. Second, and this is my niece Mary’s theory, she might have recognized that my Ranger pickup was in the driveway; Sabol might have realized I was coming back. She applied her canine common sense.

I merely concluded that I didn’t allow the door to latch shut when I let my puppy into the house.

Yep. This smart girl has earned her spurs.

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New journey begins

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High Plains Blogger came into being as a political platform for yours truly, but I decided a while ago to branch it out to include what I call “slice of life” matters.

I have chronicled my grief journey on this blog and it has given me great comfort in the time since I lost my dear wife, Kathy Anne, to brain cancer.

I am proud to announce that this blog is going to accompany me on another journey. It’s a weight-loss trek called MOVE!, and it is run by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Not long ago I rolled out from a fitful sleepless night feeling crabby, out of sorts, and I had pain in several parts of my overfed body. I hadn’t stepped on a scale in some time fearing what I might learn. That morning, I did … and I was bowled over by the number that flashed at my feet. That number told me I gained more than 40 pounds since the passing of my bride. I had smothered myself in comfort food.

I have tried dieting on my own. I have tried exercise routines on my own. They did nothing for me. What did I do next? I reached out to my VA doc and told of this struggle. What did she do? She arranged for me to visit a nutritionist at the Rayburn VA Medical Center in Bonham. where my doc works.

I visited with the nutritionist and told her the following: I am old fat man, I am grumpy a lot of the time, I don’t want to look at myself in the mirror, I am in constant pain, my vanity is taking a serious hit because of the way I look. I am reaching out for professional help!

The nutritionist delivered to me a detailed program titled MOVE! She told me veterans have enjoyed considerable success in peeling off the pounds. There appears to be a serious caveat: You gotta follow it to the letter! No cheating allowed! I must set goals, establish a firm eating pattern, exercise regularly, the whole nine yards, man!

OK. Deal. I’m all in.

I will not bore you to sleep with all the nitty gritty of what awaits this tired old man. I just want to share with you a life-changing decision I have made … and one that I intend to follow to its successful conclusion.

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Hoping for a moratorium extension

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DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Looking around this thriving Central Texas community, I am struck by what is occurring back home in North Texas, where I now call home.

Both communities are growing at breakneck paces, although I can argue that Princeton is setting sort of an unofficial land-speed record for residential growth. Princeton is acting on it, believing it is time to put the brakes on residential construction to enable infrastructure development to keep pace with the demand on those services.

Princeton has imposed a four-month ban on residential construction. Four months, at first glance, doesn’t seem as though it provides enough time for the city to provide enough infrastructure to keep pace with growth.

Police Chief Jim Waters said he needs to hire 30 more officers. Thirty more officers? The city needs to erect more water towers to control the flow of water into residents’ homes.

Street repair, construction and maintenance also must be bolstered.

It looks to me that Princeton finally has tapped into its proactive streak in managing its growth. Man … it must act.

The question now becomes: Is four months enough time?

No. It isn’t time to do all the things the city needs to do.

I see a moratorium extension in the city’s immediate future. Other rapidly growing communities, such as Dripping Springs, would do well to follow suit.

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Highway work: a Texas thing

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Forget high school football, or fried beer that they peddle at the state fair in Dallas, or the 12th Man that fills the stadium in College Station.

The newest “Texas thing” has to be the highway construction projects that disrupt traffic flow in virtually every corner of this vast state.

I returned to Dripping Springs in the Hill County to introduce Sabol, my new puppy, to members of our family.

The road work here does not end. I doubt it ever will. If and when it does, I’ll likely be underground for eternity.

US Highway 290 is getting a second deck above the existing thoroughfare. I understand the state wants to build a no-exit thoroughfare through what they call “The Y” along 290. The existing highway will remain and local motorists can exit whenever they want.

I have done my share of griping about the work occurring in North Texas along US 380. We are not alone! Yes, other parts of the state are going through much of what we’re enduring in the Metroplex.

I now will vow to avoid griping too loudly about future highway projects at home. It’s a Texas thing … you know?

national news, political news

Trump hits new low … again!

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Donald Trump’s lying seemingly plunges into a bottomless pit, but hold on, because it’s likely nowhere near the bottom of the abyss.

As emergency services personnel in Georgia, and the Carolinas struggle mightily with rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee started fomenting the lie that the federal government is withholding resources to deliver to the struggling Americans.

Trump tossed despicable falsehoods contending that money that should have been spent on hurricane relief instead has gone to assist those who have entered the national illegally. The government lacks the money to provide help for hurricane victims, the numbskull nominee has alleged.

President Biden has called Trump out directly, accusing him of undermining relief efforts, of sowing fear among victims. Vice President Harris asked out loud “where is the empathy, the compassion?” that Trump should be exhibiting. I have an answer for the Democratic presidential nominee. Both traits are MIA, that Trump possesses neither of them!

And yet this idiot continues to draw cheers from the MAGA cultists over his profoundly stupid accusations.

Wait for more of the same rubbish to fly out of this nincompoop’s mouth. It is an endless array of lies that he has turned into some sort of perverted art form.

Dude is dangerous to the nth degree.

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It’s laughable … but I am not laughing

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Human beings cannot control how they look, as some of us are born to be attractive while others … are not.

We can, however, control our actions, some of which leave indelible marks on our past and which can haunt us for the rest of our lives on Earth.

So … when Donald Trump pokes fun at others’ appearance, I tend to leave that kind of crap alone, allowing it to stand as a statement of the Republican presidential candidate’s ignorance. When he declares out loud that he intends to be a “champion” for women’s rights, I have to guide us to what the public record already has delivered.

Trump recently made the “champion” remark at a rally. This comes from someone who has admitted to cheating on his wives, who’s been found liable in a sexual assault, who has admitted to groping women because he’s “famous,” who has used hideous language to denigrate women’s appearance; who once said his daughter is so hot that he’d date her if she wasn’t his daughter.

I shake my head out of disbelief and disgust.

Then this numbskull has the audacity to declare that he stands with women while vowing to be their protector.

The record is full of examples that demonstrate clearly that Trump is unfit to wear the noble title of Women’s Champion in Chief.

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