Category Archives: media news

media news

MTG resignation outlives its importance

There once was a time — in a long-ago political universe — that the resignation of a junior member of Congress would last about a day, maybe two, on the nation’s attention cycle.

Then came social media. Smart phones, websites, the Internet changed it all. Now we have a junior member of Congress resigning after five years on the job in the House of Reps and you’d think the world had just spun off its axis.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the one-time QAnon queen of Congress, the fomenter of lies and conspiracies and the leading lady of the MAGA movement, has announced her resignation from Congress effective Jan. 5, 2026. And we’re still talking about it! Hell, this blog is mentioning it!

She earned so much attention from the media that we’ve now assigned her an ID based on her initial. I have to admit that “MTG” does kinda roll off the tongue. This isn’t right. She has put forward virtually no constructive legislation. Yet MTG has become something of a household name.

She reminds me, to be ironic, of a political rival. Recall that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., burst onto the scene in a similar fashion. She, too, has been elevated to initial status. We call her AOC. She’s also been a fiery blowhard, talking about about the democratic socialism that drives her agenda. AOC, just like MTG, has become a media darling. I questioned at the time of her swearing in why the media were spending so much time on this one-time no-name member of the House. I’m still scratching my head over that one.

Social media do have their good qualities. Real news gets immediate attention. If it’s accurate, the news generally tends to draw quick response to questions raised.

Then again, it elevates back-bench members of Congress to immediate superstar status … e.g. MTG and AOC. For better or worse, that’s the world we have.

media news

War on Christmas is over!

You remember Bill O’Reilly, the Fox Propaganda Channel blowhard who every year about this time would commence his seasonal diatribe about how “liberal mainstream media” had declared war on Christmas.

I’ll tell you what. O’Reilly is still gone from the mainstream cable TV airwaves after having been booted off the air by Fox over allegations of sexual harassment. He’s still out there, I’m sure, fomenting the fantasy of a war on Christmas.

Allow me to declare that the war on Christmas is over. Done with. Finished. In reality, it never really existed as O’Reilly said it did. If there was any war on this holy and festive holiday, it was conducted by Madison Avenue and its intense commercialization of the holiday that commemorates Jesus’s birth while at the same time tracking Santa Claus’s circumnavigation of the planet to deliver gifts to those of us who have been nice … and not naughty.

Those who take aim at the media criticize them for suggesting it’s somehow sacreligious to say “happy holidays” during this time, not understanding that most of the world’s 8 billion inhabitants don’t celebrate Christmas the way we Christians do. I don’t hold it against them. I guess some of us believe everyone should celebrate the birth of a baby who we believe is the son of God.

So, when merchandisers wish us “happy holiday,” they do so out of respect for everyone they serve. It ain’t a declaration of war!

Bill O’Reilly got a good bit of mileage out of his war on Christmas demagoguery. He’s still out there somewhere spreading the lie. The reality, though, tells me something different. There is no war on Christmas! It never really existed!

media news

Boycott continues, no end in sight

My boycott of national broadcast and cable news is continuing and it is showing little signs of letting up.

Why am I shutting out the news media from my home? Because the talking heads tell me damn near nothing I don’t know and I am getting basically one side of the arguments that keep spring up like weeds in the spring.

I refuse to watch the Fox Propaganda Channel for reasons that are evident in the name I just hung on the Fox network. MSNBC, the left-leaning cable channel, almost never discusses issues with  pols who tilt right. When they have, and again, it’s a rare event, the discussion turns into a shouting/pissing match because the TV news host chooses to argue with his or her guest. I don’t need that spilling into my home.

About the only option left for me is public TV. The right wing has taken aim at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, yanking money from it and sending my taxpayer money somewhere else; I am presuming some mega rich dudes are getting the dough.

It’s not that I am addicted necessarily to the news. I once was considered a news junkie. When we traveled I would scarf up local newspapers to see the news of the day in a community we were visiting. I don’t do that these days. Then again, I don’t travel as much these days as I used to do.

And when I am home, I am keeping the TVs quiet in all the rooms of my home that have them. I don’t miss the white noise. Frankly, the news and commentary that comes from the TV broadcast and cable channels does me as much good as elevator music.

media news

No Kings message is spreading

It turns out the No Kings protest movement is growing some legs, as the many thousands of legs that carried protesters up and down streets of our great communities protesting the power grab underway in the Donald Trump administration.

You know what? That movement has spread to cities and towns favorable to notions that come from Trump and his MAGA cultists. KERA, the Dallas public TV station, reports that crowds gathered all over Collin County, a Dallas suburban county known as a bastion of Republican politics. Well, for at least one day, it was far from a pro-Trump reservoir of support.

Republicans labeled the No Kings rally a “hate America” event. It wasn’t. These individuals love our country as much as the Trumpkins. They are alarmed at the manner in which Trump is gathering power for the executive branch of government. They turned out Saturday to express their concern, just as it is provided in the Constitution’s First Amendment.

You would expect big crowds in pro-Democratic regions, such as Travis County, Texas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the multi-state Great Lakes, and the Northeast region of the country. Crowds showed up to protest. We also saw Red States rally against the administration. This is a national phenomenon.

I wil not and cannot predict where this will lead. My fond hope is that the anger over Trump’s unconstitutional power grab remains white-hot and sustains enough voters to get off their duffs and repel the enablers in Congress who breathe life into this movement.

 

media news, national news, political news, Uncategorized

MAGA’S message works

Every so often I get a criticism on this blog that rings true, that the critic makes a good point.

I am going to acknowledge one of those critics right now.

He challenged a blog post that suggested that voters can reject the MAGA movement simply by voting the MAGA dipshits out of office. My critic pointed out that parthy shift from Democrat to Republican is the most significant he has seen in his lifetime. I can’t challenge that, so I’ll accept it.

But I believe the underlying message of his critique is correct. The MAGA movement has perfect its messaging, its content and its delivery of it to Americans. The anti-MAGA gang is floundering. They cannot seem to speak with a limited number of voices, let alone with a single voice.

Think about this. I’ve used the term “MAGA” as an actual word. It’s in reality an acronym for Make America Great Again. Right there is a victory for the MAGA movement. It has established its identity to such a level that the acronym now doubles as a word, kinda like SCUBA diver and TEA party.

I disagree that we need to “make Ameria great again.” We have been a great country for my entire life. Even longer than that. We continue to lead the world in research and development, in Nobel laureates, we are the strongest military machine in human history. We remain the sole indispensable nation on Earth. The MAGA cult has persuaded enough of us to believe that none of that is true.

How did they do it? I believe it is from MAGA’s lack of ambiguity. It has a clear message and it delivers it with passion and the belief that they are right and the rest of us have grown a second head or a third eye.

The anti-MAGA crowd must develop its own message technique in a hurry. The result will be catastrophic for our nation as the MAGA goons continue to make mincemeat of the rest of the world’s greatest nation.

 

media news

What can go wrong?

I’ve got a lot of friends in the media business, who are reporting the news fairly, impartially and without favor … but they also take time to vent their frustrations to me, a former colleague who now writes a blog to vent my own frustration.

So said one of them today. He wrote in a message to me: “It just annoys me that this man (Donald Trump) has his hands on levers that really affect me — health care, agriculture, justice, freedom of speech. And he’s just so aggressively stupid and so mind-blowingly unqualified. And I guess what annoys the most is the feeling (wrongly) that I’m the only one who sees it.”

He’s not the only one. I want to tell him so, right now.

Earlier, I had vented to my friend. I wrote: “Pete Hegseth is another example of an empty suit tasked with making decisions that have no relation to whatever skill he brings to the office he occupies. An absolute disgrace.

“RFK Jr is sentencing children and poor folks to death by rescinding drugs that would make them well; we have an ed secretary who confuses AI with A1; we have an AG who indicts a former FBI boss because Trump wants her to, and who has absolutely no legal grounds on which to indict him.”

My comment to my friend was aimed primarily at the numbskulls with whom Trump has surrounded himself. Why bring this up? Because the federal government is on the verge of shutting down.

Hmm. How can it be? Republicans occupy the White House. They have a slim majority in the U.S. House. They have a little larger majority in the U.S. Senate. Why can’t they, or won’t they, avoid a government shutdown?

My friend asked what I presume to be a rhetorical question, which was why are Republicans willing to shut ‘er down? I responded:

I have the answer. It’s because the MAGA disphits who control the GOP have no interest in or ability to govern. They want to make headlines. They are addicted to the sounds of their own voices and don’t give a pile of shit about the services they swore to provide to those they represent.

They are led by the MAGA dipshit in chief, Donald John Trump. So, we stand at the precipice of yet another GOP-inspired government shutdown. We will deny millions of Americans the services for which they pay. Thousands of Americans will lose their jobs.

You and I will be left to fume and vent our rage at the politicians who don’t know how — or care to learn how — to govern.

local news, media news, national news

Sorry for not engaging

Here it comes … a qualified apology to the occasional critic of this blog who challenges me to engage them in debate, only to be rebuffed by me.

High Plains Blogger used to consume a lot more of my time than it does these days. As I grow older — and as I continue to rebuild my life after my bride’s passing from brain cancer more than two years ago — the blog has become less a part of my life. That’s by design. It’s my design.

I have my share of supporters who tell me they like what I have to say on issues of the day. I also have a number of folks who I know oppose my point of view. On occasion they will challenge me. They demand that I explain myself. If they present data they believe proves me wrong, they insist I say so publicly, or at the very least engage them in debate.

I once posted an item on this blog that declared that I see my posted opinion as my last word on a subject. Therefore, I have no particular need or desire to engage someone in a debate that will result only in boosting my blood pressure. Maybe even theirs, too.

Now that I am well into this next phase of my life, I have even less reason to go toe-to-toe with a political foe. There is no point. I choose only to let my critics have the last word, as I am not afflicted by what I call “last word-itis.”

I have asked on occasion if my foe and I could just “agree to disagree.” Some of them say yes. Some of them want to keep the rhetorical brass knucks handy.

Look, the loss of my dear Kathy Anne taught me a valuable life lesson. It is that life is too damn short to waste time on matters that won’t ever change. I never expect to change anyone’s mind with the posts I deliver on High Plains Blogger. They might think they can change mine.

They would be horribly mistaken. To those who wish I would engage them, I merely want to apologize … but only for staying away from the rough-and-tumble. I won’t apologize for whatever I say.

media news

On same track as the Cruz Missile? Who knew?

Hell has frozen over, which is the only explanation I can find to explain how Sen. Ted Cruz and I are on the same page regarding the First Amendment.

Trifling with the very first civil liberty written into the U.S. Constitution is a “dangerous” exercise, Cruz said this week. He was speaking of the efforts to silence people who are critical of Donald Trump. People such as late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

Allow me this loud and full-throated cheer for Cruz, a dedicated Trumpkin to be sure, but also someone who understands what the First Amendment means, what it says and how it must be honored. Cruz served as Texas solicitor general before being elected to the Senate in 2012. He holds a law degree from Harvard University. I’ve never doubted his smarts. I just disagree with his policy views and detest the self-serving nature in which he carries himself.

On this matter, Cruz is right. He lamented the Trump administration’s thin skin regarding something Kimmel said that got ABC to suspend him “indefinitely.” Kimmel didn’t even criticize the Trump administration, which always seems to stand front and center in anything involving Trump’s criticism of the media and fellow politicians. Kimmel made some un-funny crack about provocateur Charlie Kirk’s killer possibly being a MAGA moron. That crossed some blurry line, ABC said.

Kimmel’s indefinite suspension lasted about three days. He’s back on the air tonight. I’ll be watching. I might even stand and applaud in my North Texas living room when he opens his show.

I just want to welcome the Cruz Missile into my world of protecting the nation’s governing document … even the part that gives us the freedom to criticize our government.

media news

Kimmel is back to stick it deeper

As a rule I don’t plan my day around what’s appearing on TV … but Tuesday night I am making an exception.

I am going to be sure to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s return to his 10:35 pm (Central Time) slot on ABC’s “Late Night” show. This is a big … deal, man!

Why? Because the network that suspended Kimmel indefinitely from his talk show made an egregious error in judgment. Its decision to fire Kimmel flew directly into the teeth of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the amendment that guarantees free speech.

Kimmel had made a crack on the air that Charlie Kirk’s murder the other day well could have been a MAGA-inspired event and not a deed done by a lunatic who disagreed with the right-wing influencer’s point of view. ABC determined Kimmel was out of bounds.

Wait a second! Kimmel didn’t offer an original thought. Almost at the moment Kirk was mortally wounded, some lefties sought to argue that the MAGA crowd was looking for way to tear our attention away from those Jeffrey Epstein files that allegedly contain Donald Trump’s name and suggest that the president and the convicted sex trafficker and pedophile were friends.

Look, ABC overreacted. Kimmel did not need to be punished in this manner. I am glad Kimmel is coming back.

To be clear, on the rare occasion that I stay up late enough to watch one of the after-hours comedians, i prefer Stephen Colbert on CBS-TV. He’s funnier — and more biting — than Kimmel. But that’s just me.

On Tuesday night, I will dial in to watch Jimmy Kimmel march triumpantly on stage and listen to what he has to say about what the network did to shame him. Without a shred of doubt, I will not be the only American who does so.

media news

Why Epstein matters

I have sought to come to grips with why the media continue to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged relationship with Donald J. Trump. I have figured out why this story matters.

It matters because it could tell us about the relationships that the president of the United States kept not many years before he won election to the White House.

Epstein, of course, is dead, having hanged himself in a jail cell in New York City. His former girlfriend/accomplice is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex traffricking of underage girls.

The story revolves around the “Epstein files” and what they contain pertaning to Trump’s friendship with the hideous sex trafficker and child molester.

Do I think Trump took part in these hideous activities? No, I do not. Whether he did or didn’t, though, is not the point of finding out what’s in those files. What the public ought to know is this: Did the man who would run for POTUS hang around the seediest man alive and was he actually friends with an individual who he might have known to be the animal we know him to be?

Therein lies the media interest in this matter. It also cuts to the heart of why Democrats and some right-wing MAGA Republicans want this information released to the public. Trump calls it all a “hoax,” meaning he believes all those known victims of Epstein are liars. How does this individual look in the mirror after denigrating victims of sex crimes?

Don’t answer that. I know. He does it because he has zero conscience.

The conscience-free president of the United States finds himself in a tightening circle of evidence that he knew Epstein far more intimately than he’s letting on.

Do you remember when Sen. Barack Obama got pilloried because his preacher once cursed the United States over its slavery policy? Obama, who was running for president in 2008, issued a public statement rebuking the preacher — a longtime friend of his — and then quit attending the man’s church.

I can find no sign of such contrition coming from Trump. He blames the victims for fomenting a “Democrat hoax.” Meanwhile, the questions keep mounting and the public is beginning to ask: Did we really elect to the presidency an individual who would cozy up to scum such as this?

That’s why this story matters.