Category Archives: political news

national news, political news

This POTUS takes job lightly

When the president of the United States spends hours each night sending out social media digs at political foes, or concentrates his anger at media reporters, or takes time to lament who’s to blame for a reflecting pool fiasco, or can’t complete construction of a billion-dollar ballroom where the East Wing once stood …

Well, you have a POTUS who cannot possibly be up to the job to which he was elected to do.

You have in Donald Trump an overfed showman who has started a war with Iran, backed an aggressor in the Kremlin for launching an illegal and immoral war against Ukraine and has alienated just about every valuable ally this nation has worked for decades to count on as a friend.

President Barack Obama recently said that a president who is serious about his job has — at minimum — perhaps 10 issues on his plate that require his undivided attention. And they have nothing to do with beautifying the White House.

It should be abundantly clear that Donald Trump was far more interested in becoming the POTUS than actually being that person. To be the commander in chief, the head of government and head of state requires laser-like focus. Trump exhibits none of that trait as he stumbles, bumbles and blathers his way through each day he is in office.

He continues to bitch about losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden … and cannot bring himself to say a single empathetic word about the former president’s struggle against cancer. He continues to lie about presiding over the “the greatest economy the world has ever seen” when in fact the USA is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

This individual has sought to destroy our democratic republic. He cheapens the presidency every single day he sits in the Oval Office. Donald Trump has no business holding the office to which he was elected twice. What in the world is wrong with this nation?

national news, political news

Never have seen hatred like this …

My interest in politics and public policy goes back a ways … to, oh, around 1968. I had just graduated high school the previous year and was floundering in college.

Military duty awaited me, along with the Vietnam War that was fueling much of the debate in this country. The war and the debate raged on after I donned the Army uniform in the summer of ’68; in fact, I was inducted on Aug. 21 of that year, which means I will commemorate my induction date in just a few days.

I had a preferred presidential candidate that year. It was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York. He was possibly on track to be nominated that summer as the Democratic candidate for president. Then in June 1968 it ended in a hail of gunfire in the Los Angeles hotel kitchen the night of the California Democratic primary that RFK won.

I went on to serve my country. I returned home in 1970. I got involved in the 1972 presidential election.

Where am I going with this? At no time, not a single time, did I witness the kind of bad blood flow among activists and politicians that we’re witnessing now in the Age of Donald Trump. We are witnessing the tearing apart of one of the essential threads of our political fabric. It’s the fabric that tells us that civility and decorum have their place … even as we debate with every ounce of mental and emotional strength in favor of policies and politicians we admire.

These days we hear about politicians fearing for their lives, that their political foes could react violently. And I won’t be coy about this aspect of the today’s climate: Pols and activists on the right — especially the MAGA right — are the most guilty of fomenting this fear. To be fair, the violence has its roots across the spectrum. I will cite the gruesome murder of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk as a key example of how dangerous this rhetoric has become for everyone in the public eye.

Can we return to the good old days of fierce debate among friends in high places? I damn sure hope so.

political news, State news

How will Donald react to the drubbing?

Hey, it’s time to ask what I believe is a pertinent question regarding the midterm congressional election that is now just around the corner.

How is Donald Trump going to react if his Republican Party suffers the drubbing it is expected to receive from voters across the land who are tired of going to war, weary of the inflation caused by tariffs and sickened by the POTUS’s power grab?

My hunch? He will hate it all with a purple passion and will seek to find conspiracies around every corner and in every nook and cranny of the electoral system.

We now can presume that Trump cannot stomach the thought that he is a loser. Except that he is. He keeps challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. He’s lost more than 60 court challenges. Loser!

What will happen if Republicans lose in states where they haven’t lost since The Flood? Will the party accept the results of free, fair and legal results if Democrats end up with more votes than the GOP? Bwahahahahaha!

Republicans will be fueled by the POTUS’s anger. They’ll gobble up the lie about elections being stolen.

I’m trying to fathom what might occur in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico holds an estimated 5-point lead over Republican Ken Paxton. Suppose Talarico’s lead is real and suppose as well that it translates into a victory in November. Trump will become apoplectic! He’ll go crazier than he already has become … especially if it’s a narrow Talarico win.

I am going to hope for the best. Which is that Trump realizes finally — finally! — that his battle to cling to power is lost forever. And that he’ll accept the thrashing he is expected to get and settle into the lame-duck status that is his alone.

You can stop laughing now.

national news, political news

Trump earns title of ‘loser’

One of Donald J. Trump’s favorite epithets appears to be “loser,” which he bestows on anyone he deems to be, um, well … not worthy of any description other than that one.

I want to hang the label round the flabby neck of the current POTUS, for he has assumed the title of loser in chief.

He keeps harping on an election he lost to Joe Biden. He has filed 60-some lawsuits and lost every one of them in various courts of law. Trump continues to tease us with the half-baked notion of running for a “fourth term” in the White House. Why four? He won the first race in 2016, claims to have won the second one in 2020, captured the presidency in 2024 and suggests the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t apply to him … so he might run again. The amendment says he’s only able to win twice. He did so. At the end of the current term, he’s out. For keeps. Forever!

He backs candidates who win their Republican primaries. So, he can claim victories there. The test of success has come in general elections when his MAGA morons face real opposition. Then they lose. I am suggesting strongly they’ll keep losing throughout the 2026 midterm election season.

What does make the 47th POTUS? It makes him a loser. Pure and simple.

His legislative agenda — such as it is — is dead. He’s heading for certain impeachment once Democrats reclaim control of the House of Reps. Then it will fall on the Senate to determine if he stays in office. If the GOP keeps control of the Senate, he might hold on until the end of his term. If not, well, then the fun really begins.

The loser in chief’s legacy will be cast in stone.

national news, political news

TDS is real … and I’ve got it!

My name is John and I suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

There. I’ve come clean. Critics of this blog might rejoice in my acknowledgement of what they have accused me of having. Fine. Let ’em crow all they want.

Donald Trump has afflicted me with a condition I’ve never experienced before. Richard Nixon didn’t do it. If Tricky Dick couldn’t bring about an NDS — Nixon Derangement Syndrome — I figured I might have been free of the affliction. Silly me.

Yep, Trump has done seemingly the impossible. I’m a pretty cool customer most of the time. But when it comes to this guy, well, just toss the playbook out the window.

He speaks in mindless platitudes. Trump is unable to offer a significant reason for endorsing or condemning an individual or a policy. He prattles on and on with nonsense. He makes promises he knows he cannot keep. Indeed, he has no intention of keeping them.

Remember the crap he said about ending “forever wars?” Dude just started one. He said he would end the Ukraine-Russia War on “day one” once he took office the second time. He couldn’t possibly do a thing about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Besides, the POTUS admires the Russian thug Vlad Putin who invaded Ukraine.

One High Plains Blogger critic has suggested I seek treatment for TDS. Hah! I have no intention of being “cured” of a condition I am proud to wear.

I detest Donald Trump. He has no business sitting in the Oval Office. He should be kept far away from the nuclear codes. Why in the world should I seek a cure for understanding the obvous?

national security, political news

Don’t underestimate this fool

For sure I have learned a lesson or two about Donald J. Trump, which is that never — not ever — believe he is finished when the whole rest of the world is saying as much.

He was supposed to have been done during the 2016 presidential campaign after a number of ghastly personal performances. He managed to pull off the biggest political fluke in U.S. history by scoring enough Electoral College votes while losing the popular vote by 3 million ballots to Hillary Clinton.

He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but has sown enough doubt about the integrity of our electoral system to cast a pall over it that lasts to this day.

Trump won’t be on the ballot in 2028 and this coming November we’ll have the midterm election. Control of Congress is at stake. The odds favor a Democratic takeover he House of Representatives. The odds of a Democratic coup in the Senate are longer, but still doable. Trump won’t be on the 2026 ballot, either.

Make no mistake that this charlatan, this election denier in chief, this ghastly pretender to the presidency is pulling out all the stops to deny Democrats the victory they deserve and are expecting. He’s seeking to nationalize the midterm, which I have noted already in an earlier blog post is an impossibility. However, it is a mistake to dismiss this moron’s ability to make it so.

That could result in the House flipping far fewer seats to the Democratic column. And it could mean the GOP keeps control of the Senate. Many of us want the Democrats to win the day in contests for both congressional chambers. I say that, though, knowing full well that Trump’s ability to dodge political freight trains is nothing to dismiss.

That’s what makes him so damn dangerous.

Beware, y’all.

local news, national news, political news

Nationwide electoral theft? Impossible!

Let’s visit briefly — shall we? — Donald Trump’s continual harping about the 2020 presidential election and how the result, a victory by Joe Biden over Trump, was an act of electoral theft.

It didn’t happen. Here’s how I know that to be so.

To suggest that a federal election was orchestrated to produce a winner ignores this undeniable fact, which is that our elections are conducted by individual states. Each state operates independently from other states. They all have their own system of counting ballots. They abide by rules set by their legislatures, and signed into law by governors.

Collin County, Texas, where I have lived for the past seven years, has a perfectly fine election system. It’s modern, it’s secure, and it’s free of the kind of corruption that Trump seems to believe exists in counties throughout the nation. He’s full of mule dookey.

The county’s election system is run by Stacey Kemp, a competent county clerk who oversees a staff of deputy clerks who are committed to upholding the oath they all take to defend and protect the Consitution of the United States.

Trump, though, sees this issue as a national matter. Indeed, he is looking for crimes that simply cannot exist in our electoral system.

I also should point out that our state electoral systems are not connected to the Internet, which Trump alleges is a prime source of the shenanigans he says occurs.

The POTUS went on the air the other night to relitigate a six-year-old gripe that has been tossed out in more than 60 lawsuits filed in courts from coast to coast. Let me also note here that many of the federal judges who have ruled against Trump have been nominated for their seats by Donald Trump … which tells me quite clearly that these men and women understand the law far more clearly than the dimwit who sits in the Oval Office.

national news, political news

Trick knee is throbbing again

Many of you know about my trick knee. I have relied on it on occasion when I feel something unusual might be about to happen.

I want to remind you that “might” is the operative word. I cannot predict anything. I dare not try. My record of predicting outcomes is pretty shabby. I mean, I was one of many so-called pundits who said Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in to capture the presidency in 2016. Wow … we missed the mark on that one!

What might occur in the immediate future? Bear in mind once more that I am no shape to predict a single thing particularly where it regards the individual I am about to mention.

The individual is Donald Trump. What could happen is that the 45th and 47th POTUS might not finish his term in office.

I have listened to him incessantly since he took office the second time in January 2025. When I listen to his speech patterns and compare them to what he blurted out during his first term and prior to that, it is clear as mud to me that he no longer is firing on all cylinders.

How does that occur? I might suggest the 25th Amendment could come into play, but that requires a unanimous approval by the Cabinet. To be honest, I have difficulty imagining Trump lackeys such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or FBI Director Kash Patel signing on.

There could come a moment of private reckoning when Trump realizes his legislative agenda is dead. That death would come when the House and Senate both flip from Republican to Democratic control. If the House flips, I would bet real American money that impeachment is on the way.

I believe all Americans can see for themselves what is painfully obvious. It is that Trump isn’t half the politician he once was. The POTUS who is obsessed with “ratings” will find out what low ratings mean to him personally. He cannot cope with being a loser.

It is happening.

national security, political news

Game of election denial … breathtaking!

Never in my life — not ever! — have I witnessed a rhetorical game being played out to the extent that it has been regarding the result of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

I’ve been around a bit, as I am now 76 years of age and have been following politics pretty closely for, oh, about the past 60 years.

Donald Trump’s choice to become the next director of national intelligence was merely the latest Trumpkin to play the word game with Democratic lawmakers. Jay Clayton, in testimony this week to a Senate committee, refused to say that President Biden won the 2020 election.

Here’s how Al Jazeera reported the exchange between Clayton and senators:

“Senators pressed Clayton about his views on the 2020 race between Biden and Trump, and he acknowledged that Biden had been ‘certified’ as the victor. But he avoided directly saying Biden ‘won’ the race.

“In one exchange, Democrat Jon Ossoff asked Clayton point-blank, “’Who won the 2020 election?’

“’I’m not going to do this with you,’ Clayton responded.

“’This is a job interview. We’ve established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee,’ Ossoff replied. He then repeated, ‘Who won the 2020 election?’ Clayton responded that he had ‘already answered the question.'”

Clayton danced the same two-step with Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. He refused to say Biden “won” the 2020, but that he was “certified” the winner by virtue of the electoral votes he received.

It baffles me to end in sight why these individuals would choose to damage the integrity of the electoral system based on the Big Lie being fomented by the liar in chief. This game has been going on since that election, which President Biden won a slim but undeniable Electoral College majority and a 7 million popular vote majority. Trump, though, still has none of it and, of course, he instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol that injured hundreds of people and killed several others.

Trump’s team has repeatedly refused to answer the simplest of questions regarding the 2020 election. They have demonstrated their disgusting fealty to a convicted felon over the U.S. Constitution. They make me sick.

local news, national news, political news

Lowering flags for this clown?

Someone will have to explain why flags all over Collin County, Texas, have lowered to half-staff … and I damn sure hope it isn’t to honor the memory of a piss-ant partisan who died over the weekend.

I have concluded that the flags are flying at half-staff because Sen. Lindsey Graham — a Republican from South Carolina — has passed away.

Now, I must ask: What in the name of politics has Graham done to benefit Texas, other than to fall in line with his Big Daddy, Donald J. Trump? Graham once had the balls to tell the truth about Trump … when he was running against him for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. He called Trump a “race-baiting” nitwit; he called the future POTUS an individual who is unfit for public office, let alone the presidency.

He fell in line about the time Trump secured the party’s nomination that year and has been licking the liar in chief’s boots ever since.

And for that — and virtually nothing else — he’s being honored with businesses, government offices and individual property owners flying flags at half-staff.

Give me a … break.