Category Archives: national news

crime news, national news

Yes, he was an ‘illegal’ immigrant

Lest you think I am a Joe Biden lackey, I have to acknowledge that the president was wrong to apologize to the killer of a woman whose case has become a rallying cry for the MAGA movement.

Laiken Riley died at the hands of a man who was in this country illegally. President Biden referred to him as an “illegal” immigrant, then apologized to him for his use of the term “illegal.” Biden said he should have called him an “undocumented” immigrant.

Talk about splitting hairs!

The dude was in this country illegally. He reportedly broke U.S. immigration law by coming here, then committed a horrific crime. Riley was killed while jogging on the University of Georgia campus. Police arrested a man from Venezuela, Jose Ibarra, who came to this country — dare I say it — illegally.

The president’s apology now has lifted the issue of immigration to the top shelf of campaign issues heading into the 2024 presidential campaign.

Damn, I wish Biden would take greater care on issues such as this. He blurted out a description that, on its face, is accurate. He did not need to apologize for speaking the truth about an individual charged with a horrible crime.

media news, national news, political news

Waiting for the unknown

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There once was a time when surprises occurred during presidential primary campaigns.

All eyes would be focused on established political stars or — in the case of the current Republican nominee-in-waiting — on notorious characters.

Then the surprise would occur. Someone would burst out of the crowd. That someone would an individual no one had heard of … or so it seemed. They would take the rest of the field on head to head. The unknown candidate then would collect enough delegates to win the nomination from their party.

Alas, those days appear gone. Maybe forever. Why is that? Social media platforms grant instant celebrity status to newly minted politicians. I think of the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

MTG and AOC both earned celebrity status by having their names initialized in the manner I have just demonstrated. One of them, MTG, has been a disgrace. AOC — again, in my view only — has emerged as a star; to be fair, I had my doubts about AOC when she arrived in D.C.

I am wishing at times for a new star to burst forth from the tall grass and capture our hearts and minds.

American voters are facing a presidential election this year with two warhorses fighting each other. One of them is a seasoned politician with decades of public service under his belt. Joe Biden, though, is 81 years of age and has been on center stage almost from the moment he became a U.S. senator in January 1973. He says he’s ready for the fight that awaits him; I am taking him at his word.

His probable opponent … I cannot print his name. He is 77 years of age and has been impeached twice, indicted four times, faces 91 criminal counts, incited an assault on our government, lost his re-election bid and has never conceded defeat, been convicted of sexual assault, has lied about his wealth, denigrated a legitimate Vietnam War hero, mocked a physically challenged reporter and said those who serve in the military are “suckers” and “losers.”

I long for a return to an era when someone fresh, clean and scandal free can emerge from the shadows and capture our imagination.

Who is that person? If I knew his or her name, that would take away the surprise.

local news, national news, political news

GOP pissants reveal their ‘character’

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Let me be clear that I was disappointed, but not the least bit surprised, at the behavior demonstrated by the MAGA chorus of what passes for a once-great political party last night at President Biden’s State of the Union speech.

They showered the president with catcalls and jeers for parts of his speech, showing the world what kind of classlessness comprises the Republican side of the congressional aisle.

My instinct for fairness compels me to point out something before I return to my point: Democrats have on occasion done the same thing when a Republican president has delivered an important speech on the state of our great nation. We also had a House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, tear up her hard-copy text of an SOTU speech delivered by President Biden’s immediate predecessor. That was a poor look, too, to be sure.

I want to remind readers of this blog, though, of an important point.

It is that exactly two people — the president and vice president — hold their office because of votes cast by an entire nation. Congress comprises 535 individuals who are elected either by voters in their states or in congressional districts carved out by legislatures.

Just two people, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have the standing to demand respect and decorum from their audience to whom they are speaking.

Joe Biden didn’t get it from the likes of, say, the MAGA loudmouth from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also showed great disrespect for the rules of the House by wearing a MAGA ballcap on her pointed head. The idea that House Speaker Mike Johnson would allow such a thing to occur is disgraceful on its face; no headgear is allowed in the House chamber, period.

Oh, wait! Had he scolded MTG for breaking the rules, she likely would file a petition to have him removed. Therein lies the real story behind who’s running the show in the House … and it damn sure isn’t the speaker.

Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech from the podium. It resonated with this North Texas blogger. Welcome to the fight, Mr. President.

national news, political news

No mention of ex-POTUS’s name

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Well, I’ll be deep-fried and fricasseed. I was certain President Biden would pepper his State of the Union speech with the name of the fellow he succeeded as president.

He didn’t.

Biden didn’t mention his name not one single time!

I had prepared to swill ouzo from a flask tonight at every mention of the former Moron in Chief’s name.

Hah! I can save it for another time.

Still, my first reaction to President Biden’s speech is quite positive. He came to the joint congressional session prepared to wage political war. He didn’t disappoint.

local news, media news, national news, political news

No need to ID this guy by name

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Everyone on Earth now likely knows the name of the next Republican Party presidential nominee, as he has captured the party nomination for the past three election cycles.

Thus, you won’t need to read his name on High Plains Blogger. I made a command decision some weeks ago to boycott the idiot’s name, to keep it off my blog posts … to the extent that I can.

There might be an occasion where I quote another politician who has to use his name. I am going to seek ways to write around it.

Why do this? It’s purely selfish. I am sick and fu**ing tired of seeing his name in print and hearing his name mentioned on broadcast media. The very sound of his name makes me feel like puking.

The sight of his overfed, over made-up face causes the same sort of revulsion.

I am wondering whether I should invoke a private drinking game tonight as President Biden delivers his State of the Union speech. Every time the president mentions his 2024 general election foe by name, I am thinking about taking a swig from a small bottle of ouzo I received the other day from a friend of mine.

If I do, I am likely to be wasted by the end of the evening.

President Biden clearly is preparing for a rematch against the former moron in chief he defeated in 2020. He mentions his name liberally whenever he speaks these days in public. That’s fine. It’s good to remind voters specifically who drove the economy into the tank with his feckless, reckless and careless response to the COVID crisis.

That’s a topic for another day.

Meantime, I will watch our president declare that the health of our union is strong and is getting stronger. I just hope my flask of ouzo will last the entire speech.

local news, national news, political news

Like minds make good friends

It never used to be like this … but the here and now suggests a new level of compatibility is required for Americans to make friends.

One such friend of mine is an admitted political junkie. She loves the political process and she is well-versed on political trends and those who set them.

We are of like minds politically. Which means that she can tell me what’s in her heart and on her facile mind. I won’t bristle.

It turns out that political compatibility measures up to things such as, oh, what kind of movies you like, the type of food you can eat, and your taste in music.

It wasn’t always like this. I have maintained many friendships over many decades with people who have supported politicians who were the polar opposite of the individuals I formerly admired.

These days, if you say “polar opposite” to people such as me, then you back a pol who disavows democracy and adheres to authoritarianism. That’s a deal-breaker in my book.

Do we take our politics more seriously than before? Umm, not really. I do take the hideous point of view being espoused by those on the opposite side of the field more seriously.

It’s not enough to consider tax policy, or even gun policy to drive me far from those with whom I differ on those issues. How should I think of someone who embraces someone who is unfit for public office? That makes it a whole new game for me.

national news, political news

GOP about to go ’round the bend

What passes for a once-great American political party tonight appears ready to ’round the ol’ bend, from traditional conservatism to something few of us recognize.

A former POTUS who was impeached twice by the U.S. House and now stands indicted in four courts — two state and two federal — of high crimes is likely to win enough delegates to seal his nomination to the presidency in 2024.

God help us all!

I have refused to mention this clown’s name on this blog. My pledge to avoid mentioning it remains strong. I am deeply troubled that the party he claims to represent no longer appears to care about a politician’s character. Indeed, the fellow who’s likely to be nominated in 2024 doesn’t have any character; he lacks morals; he lacks compassion; he lacks grace.

He is unfit for public office.

However, he is poised to claim the nomination of a party he has co-opted and hijacked.

I cannot even fathom what many of the great Republicans of the past would think of what has become of their party.

national news, political news

Optimism being tested

My eternal optimism is being put to the strongest test in my life’s history … as I watch this political drama play itself out.

Our nation’s constitutional framework is being tested mightily by forces loyal to an individual who declares his intention to be his followers’ “retribution.” How might he do that? By suspending — and these are his own thoughts — constitutional authority if only for a day were he elected to the presidency of the U.S.A.

I long have held firm to the notion that President Ford was right when he took office in August 1974 after President Nixon resigned. “Our Constitution works,” the new president reminded us … and it does.

It’s facing an entirely new set of challenges these days. What I find most remarkable is that the idiot who is challenging the Constitution is doing so with the blessing of the blind cultists who follow him. I will never subscribe to the notion that these followers comprise a majority of Americans. They are a minority, but dammit, they are vocal. Their vocal cheering of the trash that pours forth from their hero only empowers him.

My sense of optimism, therefore, is being tested like never before.

But you know what? I am not going to give in the idiotic belief that enough Americans are stupid and simple-minded enough to elect this fraud to high office.

We are a great country and most of those of us who are willing to cast our ballots for POTUS know the difference between who we are and who we could become … if we make the wrong choice.

local news, national news, political news

Pro-life, pro-choice: not mutually exclusive

Shall we now commence a brief discussion on what I believe could become the determining issue of the 2024 election?

It’s called euphemistically “reproductive rights.” Women across this land are angry that their rights have been stripped away by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively ended a 50-year landmark court ruling that granted women the right under the Constitution to end a pregnancy.

Yes, to get an abortion!

Republicans by and large line up in favor of the SCOTUS ruling; Democrats oppose it.

Where am I on this matter? No surprise to know that I favor allowing women the right to determine a matter that is deeply personal. Politicians — most of whom are men — have no business making that determination for them.

Am I pro-choice? Yes! Am I pro-life? Yes!

Am I a hypocrite for affirming both views? No!

As a red-blooded American male, I am in no position to determine whether a woman should obtain an abortion. I have no standing on that matter. Zero. None.

Neither, in my view, does any other human being.

To be clear, no woman ever has asked me whether she should get an abortion. For that fact I am eternally grateful. I pray to God Almighty I never will have to answer that inquiry. That doesn’t mean for one instant that I would counsel a woman to do something I consider to be an act of immense cruelty.

I live in a state, Texas, that has enacted a strict anti-abortion law; the Legislature acted in the wake of the SCOTUS decision. Texas legislators placed a six-week time limit on women; six weeks after conception, abortion is determined to be illegal. The law makes no exception for the health of the mother, let alone for the health and life of the unborn child. It also subjects women and their physician to criminal penalty if they proceed with an abortion.

Is that what you call a pro-life stance? Hell no! It is a pro-birth stance.

This matter is quickly becoming a major campaign issue in the race for U.S. Senate. Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz favors the idiotic law; his two main Democratic opponents, state Sen. Roland Guiterrez and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred oppose it.

I will venture to suggest that neither of these two Democratic pols would advise an abortion any more than I would. The religious right, though, will sling arrows at the individual nominated on Tuesday to run against Cruz.

This issue is fundamental to women across the state and the nation. I stand with them — and against the fanatics on the right — in this important battle for personal liberty.

I stand with them proudly as a Texas resident who is both pro-choice and pro-life.

national news, political news

Pledge? What pledge?

Nikki Haley is now hinting that the “pledge” she made earlier in the Republican Party presidential primary to support the eventual nominee isn’t really, well, worth honoring.

Haley was one of a gaggle of GOP candidates to make the pledge to endorse and presumably campaign for the nominee. Well, the nominee now appears to be the ex-POTUS, the guy who was impeached twice and who is indicted and awaiting trial on four felony allegations.

Not so fast, said the former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador. After all, she didn’t sign a legal document. There’s nothing on paper that binds her to some bogus promise to back the party nominee.

If she chooses to back away from the pledge, well, I cannot really blame her. Not that I care one damn bit whether she keeps the pledge or chooses to back someone else.

The nominee in waiting is damaged goods to be sure. I get that he leads President Biden in most of the public opinion surveys we see. However, as they say, a week is a lifetime in politics.

This is one weird political season for certain. The idea that a once-great political party could nominate a potential convicted felon for the presidency is something I never would have imagined even two decades ago.

I am still going to hold on with both hands as we travel the rest of this electoral journey.

As for Nikki Haley … you do what you must.