Category Archives: political news

political news

Wanting a return to good wishes

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I have been watching a video that went viral years ago, and it’s still making the rounds.

It shows President George W. Bush welcoming his successor, President-elect Barack Obama to the Oval Office. Joining them were three former presidents: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. The men are standing tall and straight and President Bush is addressing the cameras gathered.

He turns to the president-elect and tells him that despite their political differences, all these men have the same thing in common. They want the new president to succeed. Bush offered Obama those good wishes on behalf of all the men gathered.

And every time I watch the video, I cannot help but think — or believe — that we’ll likely won’t see that kind of presidential fellowship for the foreseeable future. I try like the dickens to imagine Donald Trump taking part in such an event one day near the end of his time in office. My mind’s eye just cannot capture that moment.

I wish for all my might to see that kind of gathering to return. When President Biden won the 2020 election, we saw an angry mob storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. You know what happened. Donald Trump never conceded that he lost. He still carries that complaint with him, alleging that the 2020 election was stolen.

So, what might we expect to occur if a Democrat happens to win the 2028 election? Will the incumbent fling open the White House doors to all his predecessors and stage the kind of rapprochement we saw in 2009? Do not hold your breath.

I cannot predict, either, what might occur if a Republican wins the 2028 election. I suppose it might depend on which end of the GOP the winner might emerge. I still enjoy seeing video evidence of how it used to be in this country, where a peaceful transition of power allowed grown politicians to put their anger aside and wish the very best to the new person who will take the reins.

political news

Waiting for bipartisan good wishes

I know we’ll have to wait for Donald Trump to exit the White House for this to occur, but a major part of me wants a return to what used to be a bipartisan custom among those elected to the nation’s highest office.

No matter the party of the outgoing president, they traditionally have extended congratultions and. expressions of good luck and will to their successor who often comes from the opposing party.

President George W. Bush famously invited all the living for presidents to the White House to welcome his successor, President-elect Barack Obama in early 2009. He told the new president that “no matter our party, we want you to succeed.” President Lyndon Johnson did the same thing when he turned the keys to the Oval Office over to President-elect Richard Nixon. Presidents Ford and Carter, who waged a ferocious campaign in 1976, became best friends for life after that campaign and Ford was more than gracious when he wished Carter well as he surrendered the office.

Donald Trump has brought an entirely different outlook to the White House. When he lost the 2020 election to President Biden, he never extended the hand publicly to the victor. Oh, no. Instead, he decided to launch an insurrection, a violent assault on the Capitol Building and a horrifying episode that could have gone wildly wrong had the rioters succeeded in their ghastly mission.

We’re still living with the consequences of that disgraceful display. I want a return to bipartisan good will.

crime news, political news

RFK: a serious political hero

At 1:44 a.m., on June 6, 1968, a team of medical doctors gave up trying to save the life of a politician who suffered from a gunshot wound to his head. They declared this man dead.

Shortly after that declaration, Frank Mankiewicz stood before reporters and said, “Robert Francis Kennedy died today … he was 42 years of age.”

Mankiewicz served as RFK’s press secretary. He took no questions. He just walked away from the microphones and then let the political world try to make sense of the tragedy that befell arguably the nation’s premier political family.

Kennedy sought the presidency in 1968. He declared his candidacy in the same room his brother, John F. Kennedy, declared his own candidacy in 1960. We know what happened to JFK in November 1963 and many of RFK’s entourage feared the same thing could happen to the brother who guided JFK’s campaign to victory, served honorably as U.S. attorney general and then got elected senator from New York.

RFK was my first political hero. I miss him to this day. He’d be 101 years of age had he not been gunned down.

We cannot assess what kind of president RFK would make. He promised to end the Vietnam War. He vowed to work diligently to stem the deep racial divide in America. He wanted to improve health care. And yes, I believe he is spinning in his Arlington National Cemetery grave at the piece-by-piece dismantling of the nation’s health care system by his own son, RFK Jr. … in service to Donald Trump as secretary of health and human services.

I do believe that RFK’s victory in the 1968 California primary he was celebrating the night he was shot to death would have propelled him to victory at the Chicago Democratic convention and would have enabled him to defeat Richard Nixon in the race for the White House.

But the lunatic gunman who ambushed RFK in the hotel kitchen had other ideas. The pistol he used to kill RFK likely changed te course of U.S. history. He likely will live out his miserable life in the California prison system.

The rest of us who came of age politically in the turbulent 1960s will continue to mourn the passing of a 42-year-old politician who grew into the stature he claimed.

political news

Paxton didn’t get a mandate in that GOP runoff

Before the MAGA morons who supported Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Republican runoff victory over John Cornyn get too full of themselves, allow me to briefly put a this victory into some perspective.

Yes, the AG scored a decisive victory, beating the U.S. senator by 27 percentage points in the runoff. However, Paxton only tallied about 12,000 more votes in the runoff than he got in the GOP primary.

The runoff turnout fell into the basement compared to the already low primary turnout. That, by itself, is not unusual. Republicans, though, do not appear to be too enthused by someone topping their ticket who is so heavily damaged by political and personal scandal as Paxton.

Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, is divorcing him on “biblical grounds,” which is a sort of shorthand for all extramarital affairs he’s had. His top legal aides blew the whistle on him for alleged unethical behavior. A Collin County grand jury indicted him on charges of securities fraud. Texas Republicans impeached him in the Texas House.

And so, Texas Democrats are licking their chops waiting for the fall campaign to begin. Their Senate candidate, state Rep. James Talarico, is a choir boy compared to the AG.

As for Sen. Cornyn, do you really believe he is going to campaign for the MAGA dipshit who defeated him?

national news, political news

How’d we go from best to worst?

This point deserves to be repeated, so … therefore I will do so.

I will go to the Great Beyond never understanding how the American voting public could stop insisting on selecting the best among us for high office and settle for the worst among us.

Our values have been turned on their ears. We no longer care if our president is a serial philanderer, or that he is a convicted felon, lacks any semblance of a moral compass, or mocks war heroes, disabled Americans.

We set aside his lies as long as he tells us what we want to hear.

I am not going to give up on the idea that our quest for the best of us is a lost cause. It can return. Indeed, it did briefly with the election in 2020 of President Biden. Then he was gone. We got the nimrod he defeated in 2020 back for a second term after he pledged in plain English that his next term would be run with a vengeance.

Many of us said, “Hey, that’s OK! As long as he delivers the goods.” Donald Trump hasn’t delivered a damn thing!

political news, State news

Cornyn wins Charade Gamer of the Year award

I never saw this one coming, but it’s here and today I want to bestow on a veteran Texas senator an award he wouldn’t like receiving but he’s going to get it anyway.

Republican John Cornyn is the winner of the High Plains Blogger Charade Gamer of the Year award. How did he earn this honor?

The nature of his political campaign for re-election to the Senate makes it sound as if Donald Trump endorsed him in the upcoming GOP runoff election and not his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Texans have been “treated” to TV ads showing the MAGA meister in chief heaping praise on Cornyn for all the work he did to secure our borders, fight crime and back Trump’s political agenda. Cornyn tells us he “voted with Trump 99% of the time,” and worked to appoint conservative judges to the federal bench.

It’s a sham, man!

Paxton drew Trump’s endorsement because he’s a MAGA moron through and through. Paxton’s own ads show Trump spouting those meaningless platitudes about Paxton. He calls the AG a “winner,” a “great guy.” No mention of his work as attorney general. Not a word specifically citing a particular policy.

Cornyn, though, continues to campaign as if he’s the candidate who garnered POTUS’s endorsement.

I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m not voting in the GOP runoff. My hope rests with the Democratic nominee, Texas state Rep. James Talarico. However, my ears aren’t deceiving me. John Cornyn sounds like the guy blazing to the finish line with the cherished endorsement of Donald the Crook.

It’s all phony … just like the POTUS.

political news, State news

Now the fun really begins

As if the U.S. Senate runoff between Republicans John Cornyn and Ken Paxton could get more fascinating …

Well, it did with the endorsement today of the Texas attorney general over the incumbent U.S. senator by none other than Donald J. Trump. This is the kind of news that fills me with — oh, I don’t know — a mixture of outrage and cautious optimism.

I now will set the table briefly. I did not vote in the GOP primary in early May. I cast my vote for the winner of the Democratic nomination, Austin state Rep. James Talarico. I am standing foursquare behind this young man.

Trump’s endorsement of Paxton is a statement in favor of the moronic MAGA movement that continues to roil the Republican Party. If you’re a MAGA moron, then Paxton’s your guy. The AG has been snared by scandal after scandal since his election to statewide office in 2014. During his impeachment and subsequent trial over myriad corruption charges, we learned about Paxton’s extramarital affairs. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, had enough and filed for divorce on what she called “biblical grounds.” We all know what that means.

The Cornyn campaign already has introduced that aspect of Paxton’s past into the runoff campaign. It’s gotten ugly. It is going to get a whole lot uglier. Believe me!

The runoff is set for a few days from now. Polls across the spectrum show Talarico within spitting distance of Cornyn … and actually leading Paxton.

A part of me is enraged by Trump’s endorsement of a deeply flawed candidate over a principled conservative who on occasion has reached across the aisle to work with Democrats on legislation. That’s a non-starter for your average MAGA dipshit.

However, on the other side we well could have the real prospect of Texas voters getting to decide whether they want a scarred GOP senator or a fresh voice who speaks with crystal clarity. Talarico is the rare Democrat who doesn’t shove his Christian faith to the back of the shelf. He talks about it with pride, but also warns of the dangers of “Christian nationalism” that seeks to turn the United States of America into a theological state … which is something the founders expressly forbade when they wrote the Constitution.

Let us see how this GOP runoff plays out, shall we? I sense we are headed for a wild ride to the finish.

Donald Trump, political news

Wanting to see more kids’ photo ops

Five years into the current presidential administration — split, of course by the four years of Joe Biden’s presidency — and I am left to wonder what about the many things we’ve been missing as we watch Donald J. Trump stumble and bumble his way to oblivion.

We do not see any visual images of the POTUS enjoying his family. Where are all the grandkids we have heard about? Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany all have little ones, right? Yet the only images we see of Grandpa Donald are those of him dressed in a blue suit, that overly long red tie, with his pile of hair coiffed atop his vacuous skull.

Oh, and of course we see the POTUS in his golf garb, cheating at golf.

The overwhelming image of Trump is him chewing out reporters for doing their job, denigrating them for asking difficuilt questions.

I’m well aware that people in the public eye have private lives. But so many presidents have been more than willing to have their children be photographed doing whatever it is kids do. JFK, had his two small kids in the White House; LBJ’s daughters were frequent fixtures in front of cameras; so were Richard Nixon’s daughters; Gerald Ford had five kids and he was seen spending plenty of time with them; Jimmy Carter had daughter Amy living in the White House; George H.W. I Bush famously referred to his kids and grandkids; Bill Clinton was photographed often with little Chelsea; George W. Bush’s twin daughters often were in front of cameras; Barack Obama’s daughters grew up before our eyes in the White House; Joe Biden let the world watch him play with his grandkids.

I didn’t mention Ronald Reagan for a reason. He had a difficult relationship with his two youngest kids. His two elder kids both were politically active and led separate, equally visible lives.

I want the next president to reveal his family to us, and to demonstrate his commitment to them. I believe can derive his commitment to all American families if we get to see how they treat their own.

local news, media news, political news

Voter turnout sinks into the crapper

Hey, fellow Princeton residents, we had an election this past weekend … although hardly anyone took part.

And when I say “hardly anyone,” I mean precisely that. Election Day came and went and the entire city didn’t give a crap. What an absolute disgrace!

Check out these stats: Princeton is home to 18,923 registered voters. Of that total, only 476 residents bothered to vote. That gives us a municipal turnout of 2.52%. Roll that around for a moment.

Two point five-two fu***** percent of registered voters cast ballots in the election to find a replacement for Place 4 City Councilman Ryan Gerfers, who resigned because of health concerns. Here’s some more grist for you to gnaw on: That total dismisses the eligible residents who are registered to vote, but they haven’t even bothered to register with election officials.

The city will conduct a runoff election to determine whether Planning & Zoning Commissioner Jan Goria or Home Rule Committee Chair Jaisen Rutledge — the top two finishers in the May 3 election will succeed Gerfers.

Princeton Mayor Eugene Escobar Jr. expressed disappointment in the turnout. “I want to improve how we engage with the community and increase participation in our elections so we can actually bring the changes you are wanting,” Escobar told the Princeton Herald. I agree that the city needs to do much better.

Here’s an idea for the mayor to consider. Conduct a series of town hall meetings around our growing city. Explain to residents the importance of casting ballots in municipal election. Do we really want to cede the decision to how much we pay for services we say we want to our neighbors? We are a city on the move. We are adding new residents almost daily. It falls on City Hall to reach out to our new neighbors to tell them about our city and the process we use to keep it functioning.

City Hall, meanwhile, needs to deploy social media messaging services to tell us about the election and explain why deciding these contests keeps us involved in the process of local governance.

A turnout of 2.52% cannot be allowed to stand!

national news, political news

Time for some ideas, Gov. Newsom

It pains me a bit to say this, but here goes: California Gov. Gavin Newsom is beginning to bore me … as in bore me enough to ignore what he’s saying.

Why? Well, for one thing it is quite obvious the man wants to run for president of the United States in 2028. Everywhere you turn, and he turns, he’s speaking into a microphone. His message is always the same: Donald Trump is corrupt to the core; his family has earned billions from business ventures made possible by Trump’s position; he runs the “most corrupt” administration human history.

Blah, blah, blah … I’ve heard it already, governor. I know Trump is a crook. I know he is unfit for public office. Hell, I’ve been saying since before he announced his candidacy the first time.

Democrats are likely to field a huge slate of candidates for the 2028 party primary season. So will the Republican Party, given that the incumbent is barred from running again.

I do like Gov. Newsom. However, if he’s going to run for president, he will need to lay out an agenda he intends to follow. I believe it’s time to see and hear it now. There is no need to hear from any of these pretenders what millions of Americans already know … that Donald Trump has been a disaster as president.

Dispense with telling us the obvious. How are Gov. Newsom and the others planning to repair and restore our democracy?