Monthly Archives: April 2024

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Eiffel Tower looms large

PARIS — Mission accomplished, but it took some doing.

My large Airbus 330 jetliner landed at Charles de Gaulle International Airport right on time. The task that lay before me, though, proved daunting in the extreme.

I had to find my way out of the airport. It was my first time visiting this terminal. I didn’t know my way. I saw countless “Exit” and “Sortie” signs guiding me ostensibly out of the airport. I must’ve walked many miles before I finally found an exit sign that actually pointed directly to the outdoors.

I found a cab stand. I told the cabbie “Eiffel Tower, sie vous plais.” Yes, he agreed.

I’ll need to stipulate that I do not speak French and he didn’t speak English. I asked him as plainly as I knew how if he could bring me back to the airport once I took a look at the Tower. He thought I asked him to return directly to the airport. So … he did.

I had tell him, “No, Eiffel Tower.” He sighed and returned to taking me to the one-time manmade wonder of the world.

The traffic, to say the very least, was unbearable. But we got there. I snapped a selfie … which I’ll post later.

But I am proud to say that I have actually visited Paris, France — if only briefly,

What a thrill!

One more thing: the cabbie couldn’t wait for me. He left after I paid him and I hailed another taxi for the ride back to de Gaulle Airport. The trip back was far less stressful than the one I took out of there.

education news, International news

Holocaust on full display

NUREMBERG, Germany — My friend told me something about the education he received growing up in this country that I feel compelled to share.

While many American politicians seek to avoid teaching our children about all aspects of our country’s history, German children are given the opportunity to tour first-hand one of history’s greatest scourges.

My good pal Martin explained to me that all students are required to take field trips to tour one of the death camps built by the Nazi regime that launched World War II in 1939 and sought to exterminate a race of people.

The Holocaust is on full display in Germany these days, Martin said.

“We have to see it ourselves,” he told me this morning. This is my second trip to Nuremberg; I came here eight years ago with my bride, Kathy Anne and on that 2016 visit, I toured the Documentation Center, the museum built to commemorate the war trials that took place in Nuremberg after WWII.

Martin told me on that first visit that “we aren’t proud of that period in our history, but we do not hide it, either.” He said then that Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror was a “blight” on Germany’s otherwise glorious history.

Today I learned about how German children are taken to one of the sites used by the Nazis to imprison innocent families … and where they were executed!

And to think, thus, that American politicians do not want our children to learn about our own nation’s “blight,” such as, say, our enslavement of human beings.

Absolutely disgusting! We mustn’t hide, either, from the sins committed by our own nation’s leaders.

International news, military news, national news

Nice knowin’ ya, Mr. Speaker

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House Speaker Mike Johnson might not be long for the powerful post he now occupies. Why is that?

Because he has decided to do the right thing by allowing a vote on an aid package for Ukraine, which is likely to piss off the MAGA crowd that opposes sending more aid to the nation fighting forces sent to Ukraine on orders from Vladmir Putin, the good pal of the POTUS No. 45.

“I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin, and Iran really are an axis of evil,” Johnson said recently. There you have it. He’s on the record calling Putin, the Russian strongman, part of a newly formed evil triumvirate.

Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine? | The New Yorker (1ft.io)

I cannot even begin to wrap my arms around the irony here.

He is speaker largely because he was endorsed by the former Liar in Chief. Now the ex-Moron in Chief might turn on him if the MAGA cultists in the House engineer a vote to remove him.

Jiminy Crickets. My head won’t stop spinning!

He is going to allow a $60 billion aid package to come to a vote. The MAGA crowd won’t stand for it.,

It, however, is the right thing to do. Johnson knows it. So do most Americans. The MAGA cultists, however, march to their own cadence … and it is seriously out of step with the rest of this nation.

national news

Trial starts … and then ends

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It looks as though Alejandro Mayorkas is going to keep his job as homeland security secretary after all.

You see, the U.S. House impeached Mayorkas because Republicans didn’t like the way he is running his department’s immigration policy. So … lacking a “high crime and misdemeanor,” they impeached him anyway.

The case went to the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

The Senate then managed, by a narrow partisan vote, to dismiss the impeachment charges against the DHS boss.

I’m an admitted partisan on this issue. Mayorkas didn’t deserve to be impeached simply because he has done a lousy job of controlling our southern border. To the Senate Democrats’ credit, they managed to hold together to fend off this scam trial.

My hope is that Mayorkas has been issued a wake-up call and tends to the need to protect our southern border against those seeking illegal entry into the United States.

International news

They aren’t so rude

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PARIS — I had heard for many decades that the French dislike Americans, that they refuse to speak English to us out of spite.

Such criticism never has made sense to me, other than the nationalism that the late Charles de Gaulle instilled in his countrymen and women during his time as president.

My brief encounter with French folks, I am happy to report, has been quite pleasant. The taxi driver I hired to take me to the Eiffel Tower wasn’t much of a talker … then again, neither was I during our ride together through the hideous Paris traffic.

All the customer service employees I have encountered on my lengthy layover in this lovely city have been professional and have done their country proud with their courtesy.

Paris is gearing up to play host to the Summer Olympics later this year and I’ll just add that the city is spotlessly clean, at least along the streets and highways I traveled earlier today.

Athens was the previous Olympic city I visited. That was in 2003 and the city had embarked on a massive clean-up to prepare for the2004 Games. The Greeks were proud to host the Games and the French appear to be no less proud as their moment basking in the sports world sunshine approaches.

All in all, my brief exposure to France has been a wonderful experience.

Uncategorized

Battle was so ‘beautiful’?

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Jon Stewart said it so well I cannot possibly improve on it.

The comedian critiqued magnificently the 45th POTUS’s description of the Battle of Gettysburg, arguably the most decisive battle of the Civil War.

The former Orator in Chief launched into a flood of ignorant platitudes. I will leave it at that.

Take a look here at what Stewart had to say about it.

Jon Stewart Tears Donald Trump Apart Over Civil War Speech (msn.com)

 

business news, economic news, local news

A boondoggle in the making?

My chronic nosiness sometimes gets the better of me, particularly when I see large public projects seemingly abandoned.

I am referring in this instance to what I have been calling a “boondoggle in the making” around the corner and down the street from my Princeton, Texas, home.

I reached out to someone in authority at City Hall the other day to ask about the status of the “apartment monstrosity” under construction on the south side of US 380 just east of Walmart. The answer I got? “It’s being handled by ‘legal.'”

Hmm. OK. I asked a follow-up question: Does that mean the project is stalled? No answer has been forthcoming.

Now, I spent more than 36 years as a reporter and editor for two reputable newspapers in Texas and one in Oregon. My job was to sniff out problems when I suspected they were occurring. My gut — in addition to my trick knee — are telling me the city has a problem on its hands.

Princeton City Council approved a massive construction project to build a massive complex of “luxury apartments” on US 380. Site preparation was completed and several structures emerged right away. Work crews installed dry wall on several of the structures.

Then, about a year ago, work stopped at the site. A dispute between the developer and the general contractor led to some sort of work stoppage. The then-city manager told me at the time that they were working it out and that work would resume shortly.

Well, “shortly” never arrived, or so I understand. I haven’t seen any sign of human life on the construction site in weeks. The gates are closed and padlocked. The weather has at times been cold and damp, perhaps damaging the unprotected structures.

I am believing in my bones that the city has a problem in the form of an unfinished apartment complex that is looking more each day like a gigantic eyesore.

Cryptic answers about “legal” counsel answering questions gives me reason — I believe — to be deeply concerned about the future of this blight on our rapidly growing community.

local news, media news

932 days … and counting

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This isn’t a boastful post, but it is one that calls attention to a streak I’ve enjoyed for a very long time.

For 932 consecutive days I have posted something on High Plains Blogger that might be of some interest to someone out there.

High Plains Blogger is taking a lengthy airplane right Tuesday morning, which might — perhaps, maybe — put that streak in some jeopardy. I will work to ensure it remains intact.

I am going to Nuremberg, Germany for two weeks. I will be visiting dear friends who invited me back there when they got word of my bride’s passing way. I’m taking them up on their generous hospitality.

My hope is that we don’t get too gabby and I forget to post something within a particular calendar day.

The gentleman who is hosting me is a journalist, so he knows about my deadline pressure. His wife works for the government, so she knows, too. They are wonderful friends and are the parents of three fabulous children, who have grown significantly — of course — since the previous time I was there in 2016 with Kathy Anne.

I do know this: my bride would insist I keep the streak alive.

So … I will.

crime news, Donald Trump, legal news, political news

First time for everything, yes?

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POTUS No. 45 keeps bitching out loud that “this is the first time” a former president has gone to court to face a criminal prosecution.

It’s as if he’s suggesting that the unprecedented nature of the trial is unjust.

Uhhh, no. It’s not unjust, Mr. Former Liar in Chief.

It’s just that this great nation has never been led by someone so inherently corrupt. The law just caught up with the ex-Philanderer in Chief.

He’s on trial in New York City on a 33-count indictment alleging that he spent campaign funds illegally to cover up a tryst he had with an adult film actress. He paid her hush money — get ready for this — to keep quiet about an event he denies ever occurred. 

Go figure that one out, folks.

Yeah, it’s the first time a former POTUS has gone on trial. I get it. I agree, too, that No, 45 has reason to worry.

It damn sure isn’t unjust, as the ex-POTUS seems to suggest.

national news, political news

Peaceful transition: hallmark of our nation’s greatness

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U.S. presidencies have changed partisan hands many times over the years since our nation’s founding.

And to a man, each president who either is about to take command of our executive branch or is handing command over to a successor, they say the same thing.

“The peaceful transition of power from one president to the next is one of the hallmarks of our nation’s greatness,” they say. That transition sets us apart, it establishes for the entire world to witness how great nations should conduct this necessary function.

I have watched presidents — Republican and Democrat alike — pledge full support for their successor and “compete cooperation” as they embark on that transition.

All of this is to condemn in forceful language the hideous refusal to grant such a transition from the administration of the 45th POTUS to the man who defeated him, Joe Biden.

President Carter got shellacked by Ronald Reagan in 1980. He called the president-elect to congratulate him and to work with him as his team prepared to take power. President George H.W. Bush lost decisively to Bill Clinton in 1992. President Bush did the same thing, telling the president-elect that he wished him success.

The 45th POTUS has been nothing but a petulant, lying, stubborn wannabe dictator by continuing to foment The Big Lie about election fraud that did not exist in 2020.

And to think this former POTUS wants to “make America great again.” What … a … disgrace!