Category Archives: national news

national news

SOBs mislabel ‘No Kings’ rallies

Spoiler alert: Be advised that this brief blog post contains a healthy dose of profane invective aimed at those who defend Donald Trump’s power grab.

The rotten sons of bitches who continue to assert that those of us opposed to Trump’s unconstitutional power grab “hate America” are demonstrating the worst form of demagoguery.

Communities across the nation rallied to protest Trump’s quest for power by staging the “No Kings” rally. They carried signs. They called immigration officials “Trump’s Gestapo.” These rallies were peaceful.

I am unaware of anyone who stated that they “hate America.” And yet that’s he kind of horse shit we heard from House Speaker Mike Johnson and a host of other right-wing dipshits who are intent on demonizing those who merely are dissenting from government policy decisions.

These assholes don’t grasp that the nation was founded on dissent. That dissent is an essential part of how we hold our elected officials accountable. I suspect we’ll see many more of these rallies for the remainder of Trump’s time in office. And we’ll hear plenty of epithets that tell lies about those who participate in them.

The rotten bastards.

 

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.

 

national news

No on ‘War’ Department

Vice President J.D. Vance has joined Donald Trump’s name-change cabal by declaring the Defense Department as the “War” Department.

This American patriot, who once got a glimpse of war back when I suited up for duty in the Army, will not join the MAGA cultists in making such a reference. I will continue to call it what it is and what it should remain, the Department of Defense, with a mission to “defend” the nation against foreign enemies.

I just don’t understand what enters Trump’s vacuous noggin. Think for just a moment about this.

When he was eligible to serve in the military when we were fighting a war, he chickened out. He claimed bone spurs. Has anyone ever seen him walking the aid of a cane? A doctor said he had them, so he backed out of serving the nation he said he loves.

Since becoming a politician, he has denigrated those who have served. He once said he didn’t want to be photographed with service personnel wounded in battle. He has insulted the likes of the late Sen. John McCain, a former Vietnam War prisoner whom Trump once said he didn’t deserve to be called a hero. He said he likes only those who “aren’t captured.” The bastard …

Now he wants to rename the Defense Department the War Department because it sounds tough. It has a sort of manly ring to it. This blog never will refer to the Defense Department in that new context, any more than it will attach the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name.

A department of “war” is overtly provocative and should be tossed aside as a reminder of the smallness of the individuals who support this cockamamie notion.

national news

Trump steals ridicule from jaws of praise

Donald J. Trump did the virtually impossible this week when faced with a seeming foreign policy success he managed to restore the ridiculousness of his vengeance campaign.

Trump has appeared to have helped broker a peace deal between Hamas and Israel, ending a two-year war that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians. What does he do, just as word gets out about the ceasefire in Gaza? The Justice Department indicts New York Attorney General Letitia James on a seeminly specious charge of real estate fraud.

The POTUS then shifted the talk away from a landmark peace deal in the Middle East to yet another example of the ghastly retribution he is seeking against political opponents. James is a foe of Trump. Her office obtained a conviction on 34 felony counts a year ago against Trump, making him the first felon ever elected president of the United States.

Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to secure an indictment against James, just as he did when a grand jury indicted former FBI Director Jim Comey on a phony charge of perjury before a Senate committee.

Thursday should have been Donald Trump’s day of triumph. I am one American who is delighted at the prospect that peace might finally be on tap for the Gaza Strip. Hamas threw the region into a bloody cauldron when on Oct. 7, 2023 it launched a hideous missile attack against Israeli civilians, killing more than 1,000 victims. Israel’s response was to invade Gaza with armor, artillery, infantry and air power. The result has been carnage not seen since, oh, the Vietnam War.

Trump’s team was able to persuade Israel and Hamas to stop the killing. There appears to be a deal in the works to make this deal possible. Trump stepped on his own applause lines by indicting the New York AG who was doing her job as a prosecutor.

The guy has multiple loose screws rattling around in his over-coiffed noggin.

national news

Hold congressional pay, too!

My rage against Congress is building, and we’re only in the second day of the government shutdown.

Congress inability to find a funding solution that keeps government operating fully has forced thousands of public servants to work out without. I’m talking about air traffic controllers and and airport security personnel. Here’s the punchline: Congress is continuing to receive its six-figure salary in full.

That is outrateous! I hereby call on Congress to do the impossible, which is to withhold the pay it gives to its members, make them suffer the same indignity they are forcing on public service employees.

The 27the Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does withhold congressional pay raises from taking effect until the next congressional election. That’s a start toward holding members of Congress accountable for the decisions they make. Or fail to make.

The idea that our congressional representatives are drawing their full salary while forcing others to go without theirs makes my blood boil … and therefore, I wish a plague on both sides of the political chasm.

national news

Look for common denominator

When we complain about policy disagreements and dysfunction in government, I am fond of reminding the complainers of a simple fact.

Look for the common denominator, I am bound to say. All the issues that erupt have something in common. It’s more or less like the dysfunction I have witnessed in my immediate family. I can point to an individual who is at the center of the dysfunction as the cause of it all.

So it is with government. What is the common denominator in the troubles that have befallen the federal government, which at this moment has shut down many offices that provide service to those of us who pay for it?

It’s the Republican Party, its leadership and in this moment the MAGA wing that just can’t find a way to negotiate with those dreaded Democrats. They are the common thread that runs through all of this. They were present when the government shut down during Donald Trump’s first term in office. Indeed, they were in power when Newt Gingrich was the GOP speaker of the House.

Government shutdowns don’t serve anyone any good. They simply deny essential services to millions of Americans whose tax money pays for the government to work for them. Right now, it ain’t working for anyone!

Democrats want to keep health care available for millions of Americans. Republicans don’t. Hmm. What’s wrong with this picture?

I am not going to predict an end to this latest shutting down of the government. I just want us all to understand who is responsible for its occurence in the first place.

Then we need to respond accordingly when the time comes to vote on whether to keep these dipshits in power.

national news, political news

Meanwhile, a shutdown looms … again!

As the political world frets and ponders the fate of the Epstein files, a James Comey indictment over a frivolous perjury allegation, Congress and the so-called president are locking horns over whether to allow the federal government to shut down … again!

No one is governing. Not on Capitol Hill. Not in the White House. Congress is grappling with yet another continuing resolution and whether to enact it and fund the government for a few more weeks. If not, then we shut the government down — or much of it, anyway — while Congress and the so-called POTUS argue among themselves.

This is a shitty way to run the world’s greatest democratic republic. I say that with caution, because our greatness is being whittled away by Donald Trump’s efforts to usurp power from Congress and grant himself power the founders never envisioned.

I continue to be utterly flabbergasted that this Congress allows a president to strip the legislative branch of the authority granted it by the founding fathers. The founders created a presidency with limited power. They limited the legislative branch’s power, too. A president proposes legislation, but Congress disposes it. That’s how it’s supposed to go. Presidents are asked to work hand-in-hand with Congress, including with members of the opposing party, to fund the government. Is any of that occurring? Hah!

The federal court system, meanwhile, is juggling issues that have nothing to do with governance, but everything to do with presidential conduct.

Our government is broken. I won’t say it’s destroyed, but man … the damage is piling up.

I know this sounds a little like a “both sides at fault” argument, but in the case of the budget shutdown, I have to lay blame at the two governing branches’ feet. It would be up to the courts to determine if either sides does something in violation of the US Constitution.

However, I am sickened by Trump’s ongoing petulance and the revenge he continues to seek against his political foes. It is Trump’s vengeance that is driving Democrats away. As the only politician elected by the entire nation, it falls, therefore, on the president to step up and do what is right.

Find a solution to this ongoing budget crisis!

national news, political news

Trump keeps promises, breaks a few others

Donald J. Trump fancies himself as being an atypical politician, but he’s just like all the others in this key aspect: He makes promises while campaigning for office and keeps a few and breaks others.

He ran for president in 2024 vowing to end the Ukraine-Russia war on Day One; he vowed to lower prices on goods. Trump fell short on those promises.

He also vowed to be voters’ “retribution” and said he would seek to punish his political foes. Bingo! He has kept those pledges.

It’s the pledges kept that cause me the most concern. Trump has launched probes in search of a crime. He has the targets, he just needs to find something to plaster onto them. Former FBI director James Comey today was indicted for perjury for testimony he gave to a Senate committee. Trump and Comey hate each other, but the evidence for an indictment doesn’t appear to stack up. That doesn’t matter to Trump. He’s going after Comey anyway.

Across the board, Trump is weaponizing federal law enforcement for the purpose of getting even with his foes.

Dang! He told us he would do it and yet a slim plurality Americans elected him POTUS anyway!

As for the other stuff, the policy matters that affect how much money we have to spend on food, transportation and housing, Trump is falling short. Oh, and the Ukraine war. Mr. Mind Changer now sings the praises of Ukraine’s effort at defending itself against the Russian invaders.

The charlatan in chief has gone bonkers.

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.

national news

What about Trump library?

Admit it boys and girls … we’re getting closer to the first year of Donald Trump’s second term in office, which puts us a little closer to his permanent exit from the Oval Office. Thus, I know you’ve been thinking the same thought that has crossed my mind: What will Trump’s library contain?

Or will he even have a presidential library and museum?

The first such exhibit I ever saw was in 1973 in West Branch, Iowa, home of the Herbert Hoover presidential library. I thought of President Hoover only in one context, that the Great Depression began on his watch with the collapse of the stock market and he lost his re-election bid in a landslide to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I learned, though, that Hoover also was a world-class humanitarian and he parlayed his compassion for the needy into legendary acts of good for humankind.

Fast-forward to the present day and we have Donald Trump. He’s been impeached twice. He has been vilified by world leaders for a variety of missteps. He now is trying to dismantle our democratic republic while seeking to form an autocracy. He has boasted of grabbing women in their private areas, has denigrated immigrants, the media, his political foes (who he calls “the enemy”) and has been caught telling outright lies by the tens of thousands.

You get the idea, I presume. How does he define his time in office? What will be the signature act of good he will have performed while serving as president?

This past weekend, I toured the George W. Bush library and museum in Dallas. I didn’t vote for President Bush in 2000 or 2004, but I do admire his commitment to the Constitution and his years of public service. I admire the president’s steadfast courage after 9/11 and I admire the investment his administration made in education reform and in fighting HIV/AIDS.

Believe it or not, I do wish for a signature moment that could define Donald Trump’s time in office in a positive light. So far, he’s coming up empty.