Monthly Archives: August 2024

local news, media news

Blogging gets new life

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I resigned from my final full-time journalism job on Aug. 31, 2012, having been informed by my publisher that I no longer would do what I had done for the Amarillo Globe-News for the past 18 years …. and I thought I was pretty good at it.

Silly me.

I would learn later that the publisher had me in his crosshairs when he announced that everyone’s job description had been changed. I fought for my job fiercely, telling the publisher ultimately that the industry I entered in 1976 bore no resemblance to what it had become by 2012. And that he was asking me to do things only a little different.

It didn’t work.

Immediately, I. began focusing my attention full time to High Plains Blogger, a platform I created a few years earlier.

I have mentioned many times on this blog how much I enjoy writing on it, offering my assorted views on this and/or that policy issue.

I have boasted from time to time that writing comes easily to me. I won’t brag about the quality of the prose I produce, just say that it does flow fairly easily off the tips of my fingers.

The subject matter helps determine the ease. I’ll be candid. Prior to President Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential campaign, it was becoming a bit problematic to find issues on which to comment.

Up stepped ‘vice President Kamala Harris. Biden endorsed the VP. She launched a full-frontal campaign from a virtual dead stop, raised a few tons of cash and injected this campaign with an energy level I haven’t seen since, oh, 2008 when Barack Obama took the nation by storm.

What does this mean for your friendly blogger? It means the proverbial chest where I store my ideas is full again.

I intend to remain engaged fully in this campaign. The blog is the only venue I have to offer commentary on the status of the effort.

So … I will weigh in. It feels good to be relevant.

local news

Waiting for monstrous project

When you mention the word “infrastructure,” there is a decent chance you’re talking about traffic.

And when you mention “traffic,” particularly in North Texas, you well might be thinking of US Highway 380.

You might wonder: What do these elements have to do with each other? The Texas Department of Transportation is fixin’ to hopefully correct the traffic problems by working on alternatives to traveling along US 380.

It’s a nightmare right now.

When we moved to Princeton five years ago we learned TxDOT’s plans for the region. They involve construction of loops around several cities from Denton to Greenville. Princeton sits about 35 miles from Denton and 21 miles from Greenville. TxDOT wants to construct a loop south of 380. It would attract through traffic to use the bypass, leaving local traffic on 380.

It’s expensive, man. I cannot remember the total cost of the highway work, but it runs in the tens of billions of dollars.

Now for the downer. I am 74 years of age, turning 75 in December. I mention that because I might not live long to see this project completed. I keep hearing how it’s going to take decades to finish this task.

Which brings me to the most important point. What will happen as this region continues to grow at its breakneck pace, which is projected for the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro area?

Will the highway loops around the cities that straddle US 380 be enough to loosen the traffic flow? If not, then what does the state do?

I surely get how important infrastructure is for growing communities such as those strung along the highway. I am going to hope that TxDOT is thinking past when it completes this huge project .,.. and prepares for the next big one.

national news

‘Our Constitution works’

Gerald Ford became president of the United States nearly 50 years ago as the nation was struggling through a then-unprecedented constitutional crisis.

His predecessor resigned as the House was preparing to impeach him for covering up the Watergate scandal.

President Ford declared on Aug. 9, 1974, that “our long national nightmare is over” and then said with equal conviction, “Our Constitution works.”

I take great comfort in the former president’s words today as we watch the nation undergo yet another tumultuous time. Another former POTUS wants his job back. The current vice president is challenging as well for the title of next president.

VP Kamala Harris has laid out a fight plan: This is a fight to preserve our democratic principles against an egomaniac who would take us into a dark age of tyranny. Will that really happen? Will we actually succumb to the notions of a maniac such as Donald Trump? Or will a system built to resist such impulses come to our rescue once again, just as it did 50 years ago when Gerald Ford ascended to the Oval Office?

I am going to place my faith in the founders’ constitutional document, that it really does work and that it will perform its duties once again.

But … first things first. We need to ensure that Trump keeps his tiny but grimy hands off the levers of power. We can do that simply by performing the simplest act of citizenship.

We must vote to keep him out of office … an act that would affirm President Ford’s wisdom once again that “our Constitution works.”

national news, political news

Feeling energized by campaign revival

I cannot recall the last time I felt such a palpable, tangible and visceral re-energizing of a political campaign.

The current campaign for president of the United States falls into a unique category of an effort once thought to be DOA but is now a living, breathing organism.

Thank you, Vice President Kamala Harris, for giving life to this effort.

She had help, of course. It came mostly from President Biden, who ended his re-election effort after it became clear to him — reportedly — that he couldn’t defeat Donald J. Trump, the moron he defeated in the 2020 election.

I had hoped Biden would stay the course, but he chose otherwise … and I chose to back whatever decision he made.

Up stepped VP Harris. She is now the Democrats’ nominee for POTUS. She is taking the fight directly to Trump. Her fundraising effort has been spectacular, raising $300 million in the first month.

Harris and Trump now reportedly will debate in September. I am rubbing my mitts together in anticipation of that event. I look forward to seeing how Harris might respond to Trump’s “stalking” of her on a debate stage, a la what he did against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

I am acutely aware that Harris still has to catch Trump, who still, inexplicably, continues to cling to a narrow lead. Oh, how I hope she does.

I quit watching polls during election campaigns, as they tend to reflect the nation’s mood of the moment. The mood during this campaign, is of a highly energized electorate.

It’s contagious, too!

national news, State news

C’mon back, candidates!

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Every election cycle for as long as I can remember, I issue the same call to the candidates for president of the United States.

Come on back to Texas and campaign in person, tell us to our faces, that you want our votes!

Why do they avoid the state? Well, we’re not a “battleground” location for the major-party candidates for POTUS. Democrats have all but given up on us, while Republicans take us for granted.

Let’s see. How is that changing? Well, Vice President Kamala Harris’s entry into the campaign has fired up Democratic loyalists across land …. including in Texas!

Recent history suggests that we well could become a battleground in 2024. I know we’ve said that before, only to be disappointed.

Donald Trump won Texas’s electoral votes in 2020 by just a little more than 5%. In 2016, Trump’s margin was 9%. Mitt Romney carried the state with a 15% majority in 2012 and John McCain won in 2008 with 12%. Do you see a pattern? If not, I’ll tell you that the GOP margin has shrunk over the past three election cycles.

Joe Biden pulled out of the contest believing his re-election chances had sunk to near zero., In stepped the vice president. She has raised hundreds of millions of campaign dollars in just two weeks! She is firing up the Democratic base! Thus, it appears to me that the candidates would not waste their time by visiting us in North Texas during this election season.

Look, I like politics. I like retail politics, when candidates have to look voters in the eye and tell us what they intend to do if we elect them.

I realize I am likely piddling into the wind on this request, but I’ll make it anyway.

Texas provides a huge pool of votes. My preference would be for VP Harris to win most of them. Based on what might be transpiring, there seems to be a shot — I’ll measure its probability later — that Kamala Harris could break through this barrier.

local news

Princeton zeroes in on complex

Much to my surprise, I learned today that the Princeton City Council is going to don another hat it is empowered to wear on behalf of the city it serves.

The City Council will sit on Aug. 12 as the Princeton Housing Standards Commission. It will meet to determine the fate of the unfinished apartment complex that has been rotting under the North Texas weather extremes for more than a year.

The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at the Princeton Municipal Complex. The council/housing commission will determine whether the existing units comply with municipal building codes, regulations and standards.

Now, we’re getting somewhere, ladies and gents.

The Princeton Herald did a great job uncovering much of what has gone wrong with this apartment complex, which sits just east of Wal-Mart along US Highway 380. How do I say this nicely? I cannot. The project is a disaster, a hideous eyesore and is a blight on this vibrant, growing community I have had the pleasure of calling home for the past five years.

If the council determines it meets code, then there ought to be a probe into wholesale corruption at City Hall. There is no way on this good Earth the complex holds up.

The city has issued a notice of violation, noting evidence of mold/mildew, degraded oriented strand board, a lack of adequate fire protection, bottom plates sitting in rainwater, missing, damaged and improperly installed structural components, leaks in the roof and electrical work violations.

Pffew! It takes my breath away.

The city approved the complex in 2017 and issued a building permit in October 2021.

Then it went straight to hell.

Back when it was conceived, developers presented this project as comprising luxury apartments. It meant to describe three-story garden-style units on the15-acre site.

Well, what does one say about it now, other than to wish it would just plain go away?

I know this much. Prior to hearing about the Aug. 12 meeting at the city municipal complex, I had no plans for that evening.

Now, I do.

media news

21st-century media taking a grip

Time for an admission that I am not too proud to acknowledge … which is that I am becoming quite comfortable with much of his new-fangled communications platforms available to us.

“Texting” remains a thorn in my pie hole, as I still resist using the term in verb form when discussing it. I prefer to state that I “sent someone a text message.” But … that’s just me.

I good while ago, I suspended my self-imposed six-word limit on text messages. Why? Because I acquired two devices, one of which is an I-pad, the other is an Apple MacBook desktop computer.

Both devices contain text messaging apps and a keyboard that enables me to type out messages as I would type, say, an entry on High Plains Blogger.

To be sure, I do not like “conversing” via this platform. My intention in using it is to just inform someone of something, or to make a short, declarative statement about something.

Conversing over the text message platform denies the opportunity to express sarcasm or say something with a needed nuance.

Still, even with the down sides of “texting,” I am finding this communication platform to be of considerable value.

Just don’t ask me to talk about the weather.

national news

Trump challenges Harris’s ethnicity? What the … ?

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Who in this world of ours does Donald J. Trump think he’s bamboozling?

The Republican presidential nominee today sat before the National Association of Black Journalists and said — and you can’t make this stuff up — that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris only recently identified herself as Black. It was his crass and boorish manner in which he actually questioned whether the vice president of the United States is who she has contended she is for as long as anyone can remember.

What the hell is the matter with this idiot?

Harris is the product of a Black father and an Indian mother. That means she is the first VP of Black and South Asian descent.

Trump’s cowardly attack, of course, drew the expected response from Harris, who in a few days will accept the Democratic nomination for president. She told a rally crowd in Atlanta, “If you’re going to say something about me, say it to my face!”

That was Harris’s way of challenging Trump’s waffling on his pledge to debate the Democratic candidate on Sept. 10. He and his campaign agreed to do so. Now he’s chickening out.

Just as Trump sought to foment the lie in 2008 about Barack Obama’s birthplace, questioning whether the future president was eligible to run for the office, he has launched yet another chickensh** effort to cast aspersions on another rival’s ethnicity.

This individual’s cowardice simply takes my breath away.