Category Archives: political news

national news, political news

Vote to avoid impeachment?

Donald J. Trump reportedly now is telling supporters he needs their vote to dodge what many have said from the get-go, which is that Democrats are sure to impeach Trump a third time if they regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterm election later this year.

I will continue to insist that impeachment isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sure, it seemingly could stop legislation from moving forward if lawmakers get caught up in the drama of a presidential impeachment. Then again, legislation has all but sputtered and died as legislators have battled openly with the administration over matters that have little to do with policy.

So … what’s the diff?

What astounds me is that a sitting POTUS would appeal to his supporters on such a shallow level. Never mind the idiocy that keeps flowing from the administration. He wants to seize Greenland from Denmark; he believes Canada should become an American state; he has taken a sovereign leader captive and vowed to take over Venezuela. He put his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; he cheers the notion of Americans losing their jobs; he says not a damn thing about millions of Americans being stripped of their health insurance.

Impeachable offense, anyone? Anyone at all? There are a few of them in the list of misdeeds I have just mentioned.

And, of course, he continues to lie. Bald-faced lies. He says he won the 2024 election in a landslide. He says inflation was the worst in U.S. history when he took office. Holy crap! Dude cannot tell the truth on any issue. Nothing is beyond the liar in chief’s reach!

I think Trump is correct that Democrats will seek to impeach him in 2027. Their failure to do all they can to get this guy out of office will stigmatize them for the rest of time.

Donald Trump, national news, political news

Wackiness keeps building

Our fragile world is getting wackier by the day, week, month or whatever measurement of time you choose to identify.

For instance, I saw a poll this weekend — and I believe it’s a reputable one — that said 41% of Americans approve of the job Donald J. Trump is doing as he pretends to run the country. OK, you’ll know by that previous statement that I am not one of the 41 percenters. Those who oppose Trump number in the mid-50s.

Yes, 41% of Americans would still vote for Trump, I presume, even as his retribution tour in his second term as POTUS picks up steam. You’ll recall that he telegraphed that punch during the 2024 campaign when he said he would be the “revenge” and “your retribution” were he elected president.

He has delivered … and then some.

It absolutely astounds me that the dipshit in chief continues to reap the support of 41% of those surveyed. I have been a “never Trumper” since before he entered the political arena in the summer of 2015. He and Melania rode down the escalator and the candidate then announced his intention to ban travelers from Muslim countries from entering the United States and said Mexico is sending rapists, murderers, thieves, drug dealers and sex traffickers to this country.

He’s out of control. He is off his well-coiffed rocker. He is as unfit — maybe more so — to be POTUS as he ever has been. That is just my view. He apparently appeals to other Americans who have swallowed the swill he offers promising them things he cannot possibly do … you know, things like lowering the price of food, ending a savage war in Ukraine and producing a health insurance plan that actually works.

Dude is a con artist.

national news, political news

How did we come to this?

For as long as I draw breath on this good Earth, I likely never will be able to understand the question that comes to me from my friends around the world.

They ask: What has happened to you Americans? How did you manage to elect Donald Trump twice to the presidency?

I guess my answer to Trump’s first election in 2016 would address the quirkiness of the U.S. electoral system that enables a candidate to be elected despite drawing fewer actual votes than the winner. Hillary Clinton finished that campaign with several million more votes than Trump, who won the election because he collected more than enough Electoral College votes than Clinton.

The second election, though, in 2024, is harder to explain. I mean, the guy was impeached twice by the House in his first term, he was found liable for rape against several women, he has demeaned his foes as “enemies” and the press as the purveyors of “fake news.” He told us he was going to seek revenge on those he said had done him wrong. He never said a word about hiring the world’s richest human being and ordering him to eliminate programs aimed at feeding the needy around the world. The individual has 34 felony counts tacked onto his criminal record.

My friends all tell me they have great respect for Americans. The love this country and those of us who call it home. They are baffled beyond measure at the tolerance of Trump’s petulance by Republican toadies who still stand with this clown.

I am left to admit to them: So am I.

political news

Donning the brass knucks … again

Maybe you have noticed that High Plains Blogger went a little soft on Donald Trump and his gang over the past couple of days.

I did so to honor the birth of Jesus Christ and to enjoy the holiday we commemorate in his honor.

The holiday is passed. I am back to my normal fare that some might refer to as a revival of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s a crock of dookie!

I merely am calling attention to the existential threat Trump poses to the existence of our democratic republic. I figure if I stir up enough concern, there might be a few thousand voices willing to join in the chorus to get this pretender/charlatan/fraud to cease his assault on the rule of law.

I expect to get some blowback from a handful of critics of this blog. They are dyed-in-wool MAGA cultists, although one fellow insists he dislikes the way Trump conducts himself but stands by the message he delivers. Whatever …

We’re about to complete the first year of Trump’s second term in office. Only three more years to go before we show him out of the White House … for keeps!

national news, political news

How can they govern?

You’ve heard me yammer until my puss turns blue about the need to restore collegiality in Congress.

Well, the folks who “represent” us in Washington aren’t listening to little ol’ me. In fact, it’s getting worse one congressional committee hearing at a time.

Congress keeps summoning Donald Trump administration officials to Capitol Hill to tell the public what they know about this and/or that decision. Administration chieftains dummy up. They don’t answer questions. They instead draw the ire of critics who want them to answer yes or no questions. Sen. Adam Schiff of California recently squared off with Attorney General Pam Bondi over a litany of unanswered questions. Bondi responded by asking Schiff whether he attended law school. Spoiler alert: Yes, he did … and practiced law before entering the political world of rough and tumble.

I say all this as someone who has watched political adversaries joust and jeer at each other in the middle of stern debate. When they heard the last call in either the House or the Senate, though, they would leave the floor and have dinner or a drink with each other. I once heard an anecdotal tale of Sens. John Tower and Hubert Humphrey arguing over a policy matter until they ran out of breath while conducting business. Tower, a Republican from Texas, and Humphrey, a Democrat from Minnesota, then walked off the Senate floor arm in arm.

Weird, yes? Well, yeah … especially since both sides always found room to compromise and then get things done.

national news, political news

Trump = racism, cruelty

Donald J. Trump’s penchant for racist and cruel rhetoric was on full display this week and as usual, it was an ugly sight to see and an even uglier message to hear.

The president of the United States of America took particular aim at a member of Congress. She is Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who emigrated to the United States from Somalia when she was a girl. She became a naturalized American and then a few years ago decided to delve into public service by running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump has called her garbage. He labels her place of birth a “shithole country.” He wants her deported. He said Somalia is known only for corruption, violence, disease.

Trump’s moronic rant cannot be allowed to stand. Yet his Republican allies in Congress sit on their hands, keep their lips zipped tight and let the POTUS hurl epithets at a woman who chose to move to the Land of Opportunity to escape the dangerous surroundings of the land where she was born.

I’ll never understand why the GOP caucus allows this fecal-brained idiot continue to speak the way he does about one of their colleagues. Nor will I ever grasp why the MAGA cultists guffaw out loud at the tasteless rhetoric that flows freely from the mouth of their exalted leader.

I am not qualified to judge the job Rep. Omar does for her constituents. I do know that she gets re-elected to office every two years, which tells me that the residents of her district think she’s doing well for them. About all I know about Omar is that she is a stern critic of Donald Trump.

However, I am fully qualified to declare that an elected member of Congress, a citizen of this great land, deserves to be treated with respect … even from the man with whom she has serious disagreements.

Omar won’t get it from the man masquerading as president of the United States and it is to his everlasting shame.

crime news, military news, national news, political news

Bombing boats: self-defeating ‘strategy’

A whole lot of top U.S. military brass is weighing in on Donald Trump’s decision to order missile strikes on speed boats that allegedly are carrying lethal drugs into the United States of America.

You know the drill. We have sent an aircraft carrier strike force into the Caribbean Sea to look for boats that the Trump administration says are loaded with fentanyl. They’re killing people at sea, basing their actions on the aim of protecting U.S. citizens against the drug horror that allegedly is coming to this country from the speed boats.

The brass is saying: What a minute. Let’s rethink this nonsense!

What I am hearing is that retired general-grade officers are saying the better strategy is to board the boats, seize what they’re carrying, take the operators into custody and then interrogate them to get information on the drug networks for which they are working.

But … no-o-o-o-o! Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth want to shoot first and ask questions later. What they are doing is destroying evidence they could use to prosecute the drug runners!

We have this ridiculous strategy that also has encountered allegations that the administration is committing a war crime by launching these “double-tap” air strikes to kill survivors of the initial missile strikes against the speed boats. And, get this: Donald Trump — who claimed to have bone spurs to avoid service in the Vietnam War — is talking openly about sending U.S. troops into Venezuela to launch a ground combat operation to root out the drug dealers. What the hell … ?

This fraudster in chief is out of ever-lovin’ control!

national news, political news

The longer he stays …

Gotta make an admission … which is that the longer we have to endure Donald Trump’s ignorant idiocy the more I miss traditional Republicans, the men and women who stood for principles they hold dear.

I have admitted on this blog that for as long as I have voted for president, dating back to 1972, I have voted for Democratic nominees. It hasn’t been a partisan thing but rather based on the candidates’ philosophies and those intangibles we all seek in the individuals we choose to lead our nation.

I came close to flipping, in 1976. I had to hold my breath just a bit to vote for Jimmy Carter. I thought about casting a vote for President Gerald Ford. My feelings for President Ford were more or less based on one of those intangibles. I just liked the man.

Now I am yearning for someone who cares about principle and who acts on some moral authority he or she can claim. That includes Republicans!

We don’t have a principled man in the White House. We have an immoral/amoral moron. He sees every single political relationship he has forged as a transactional event, which he can parlay into something that benefits him. He has demonstrated racist qualities time and again. He is ignorant of the document he was supposed to protect and defend. Trump doesn’t appreciate that dissent not only should be welcomed, but it is guaranteed in the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Trump is a Republican In Name Only. The RINO in chief doesn’t adhere to traditional GOP principles. The Party of Lincoln, which welcomed political diversity, has been shoved aside. The party of Trump is something quite different … and despicable.

If only the real Republicans who are left standing in the political arena could find the backbone to stand up to this fraudster. If only …

political news, State news

This could be the guy

All right, boys and girls, I want to extol the virtues of a young man I find highly attractive as a candidate for public office, but I will stop far short of predicting he will attain that office in 2026.

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico of Austin is running for the U.S. Senate held by John Cornyn, the San Antonio Republican who now is bragging about how closely he works with the nation’s felon in chief, Donald Trump.

Where to begin about Talarico? I will start with his history as a Presbyterian seminarian. He is a former school teacher. He detests Christian nationalism, calling it “a cancer on our religion.” Talarico has called Christian nationalism “the worship of power — social power, economic power, political power, in the name of Christ” and has accused Christian nationalists of turning Jesus “into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist”, arguing that it is “incumbent on all Christians to confront it and denounce it” in a 2023 guest sermon that has more than 1 million views on YouTube..

Talarico is being hailed by Democrats as a potential party rescuer. It remains to be seen, of course, whether he will collect enough stroke to take office in January 2027.

But here is what makes him so attractive to voters such as me. He doesn’t hide his faith. He touts it proudly, but he also understands that we should practice our faith in houses of worship, not shove it down the throats of every Texan … even those who do not worship a deity.

He opposes Republican efforts to display the Ten Commandments in public places, such as county courthouses and public schools. He calls such displays “un-Christian” and “un-American.” Talarico understands what should be obvious to anyone who reads the Constitution, that the founders created a secular nation and they wrote zero references to Christianity or Jesus Christ in the nation’s governing document.

Will this young man knock the veteran pol out of office? I am going to hope it happens.

national news, political news

World has gone mad!

There can be no getting around what I believe is obvious, which is that our world has gone mad, nuts, bonkers, into the loony bin … and beyond.

I’m going to harken to the 2024 presidential election in which a tiny plurality of Americans decided to ignore the obvious warning signs about the Republican Party nominee for president and elected this guy to a second term in the White House.

Yep. Donald Trump told us what was in store if we elected him. He would be the “retribution” for the MAGA cult and that he would all by himself fix what he said was wrong with the greatest nation on Earth. My goodness! The message could not possibly have been clearer!

He took office on Jan. 20, 2025 and commenced to do precisely what he said he would do. And no one seemed to care! OK, many of us did care. We have been raising holy hell ever since the end of the ’24 campaign. But those in power have blown it off.

It’s getting worse by the day. I read Trump’s “Thanksgiving message” and wanted to puke onto my lap. He hurled racial slurs, insults, epithets and utter rubbish at his opponents. Damn near every word that poured forth from his overfed pie hole was a lie.

Now there appears to be significant evidence of cognitive decline. He’s falling asleep in Oval Office meetings. Try reading transcripts of statements he makes and if you can discern a cogent message out of them, be sure to broadcast it loudly and clearly because no one has been able to make a shred of sense of what this guy is saying.

I’ll say it again, with gusto … which is that we have gone ’round the bend, kids. It is imperative that we collect ourselves and get busy fixing what is fundamentally wrong with our republic.