Monthly Archives: November 2024

national news

Biden shows his class

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is a much better man than I am … and he’s a damn sight better man than the nimrod who will succeed him as president of the United States at noon on Jan. 20.

I was frankly moved by the demonstration of class and grace that Biden showed toward Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office the other day when the two men met to discuss policy matters and the transition of power from one administration to the next one.

This was the sort of photo op media event that Trump denied Biden four years ago after Biden defeated Trump’s bid for re-election to the presidency. Accordingly, after what Trump did on Jan. 6 and after all the phony claims of being robbed of victory by unproven voter fraud, I would have expected Biden to say something crass to his successor. He didn’t go there … to his enormous credit!

I am going to say something nice about Trump, too. He accepted Biden’s hand and said that “politics is tough” and “not always nice,” and added that he looked forward to a smooth transition of power. As with almost everything that Trump declares out loud, it good to question his sincerity. I won’t do so — just yet!

Biden’s reverence for the institution of the presidency steered him toward the show of grace and dignity. To be honest I do not know what guided Trump’s demonstration in response to the president.

I want the new president to turn the page and act like a man who reveres the office he will inherit. Wanting it and expecting it, however, remain distant possibilities.

military news

Hegseth: wrong for Pentagon

One down, an untold number more to go as Donald Trump continues to spring new announcements on his Cabinet choices while preparing to become the next president of the United States.

Matt Gaetz lasted just a few days as Trump’s pick to become attorney general. Then he backed out and Trump then turned to former Florida AG Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department.

I want to turn my attention briefly to Pete Hegseth, another of Trump’s eyebrow-raising selections for his Cabinet. Hegseth is Trump’s pick to become defense secretary. He is a Fox Propaganda Channel weekend blowhard on “Fox and Friends.”

His nomination might be headed for the Dumpster, too.  A woman has accused him of raping her.; and he paid her money to keep quiet about an incident he says didn’t happen as she describes it. Moreover, he has said some inflammatory things about women, such as they don’t belong in combat.

Sheesh! What a clown!

I have been unable to stop thinking of a woman I know quite well who has served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is my first cousin; my mother and her father were siblings. She is retired these days and lives on the East Coast with her sons. I called her this morning to ask her; What do you think of Pete Hegseth’s comments about women in combat?

She didn’t hold back. He is unfit, she said. He has no experience, she added. Hegseth has no business being considered for a job for which he is wholly unqualified, she said.

My cousin knows a thing or three about combat. She deployed with U.S. Army Special Forces to Afghanistan before retiring from the Army as a master sergeant.

So, when my family member believes that Pete Hegseth has no business leading the world’s most lethal fighting force, well … I’ll stand with her any day of any week.

local news

No pairing of these words

High Plains Blogger readers likely know already of the word-pairing I announced long ago when I declared I never would write the words “President” and “Trump” consecutively … and please note that I avoided doing so in this sentence.

Here’s another pair of words you won’t see from me when referring to pets that are part of my family. They are “pet” and “owner.”

Here’s the deal. Pets, be the cats or dogs, become members of my family. Therefore, I don’t “own” them any more than I own my sons. My bride, Kathy Anne, and I brought two baby boys into this world in the 1970s and they have grown into the two finest men I know. I don’t own either of ’em.

Therefore, I don’t own Sabol, the pooch who joined my family when I returned from vacation in September. She is the second puppy who became a member of my family. I lost Toby the Puppy in December 2023 to illness. Then, Sabol came along and, oh brother, she is a fantastic addition to my household.

I have two grandpuppies, Ryder and Dak, and two grandkitties, Macy and Marlowe. Obviously, I don’t own the puppies, either, as they live with my son, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter. Macy and Marlowe moved in with me when my other son arrived in the spring of 2023.

My bride and I considered ourselves to be more drawn to cats than dogs for many years. We had many cats in our home over the 51-year span of our marriage. We had two of them in Amarillo; we had a calico who joined us in Portland in 1982, then moved with us to Beaumont and then to Amarillo. We were parents to several kitties prior to the calico in Portland.

We tried parenting a couple of pooches during all those years, but they didn’t work out.

Am I being sappy with this blog message about how I use the English language? Sure, I am. So what? Just live with it.

Don’t ever expect to me say I “own” a furry family member.

religious news

Prayer still allowed in school

I am being overwhelmed with the need to dispel a lie that has grown wings and legs over the course of many decades.

It is that the U.S. Supreme Court “took prayer out of our public schools.” It did not do anything of the sort.

What the court ruled was that organized prayer sanctioned by an arm of government is an unconstitutional act.

The court made its ruling in 1962 in the Engel v. Vitale case. “One of the greatest dangers to the freedom of the individual to worship in his own way,” Justice Hugo Black wrote for the Court, “lay in the Government’s placing its official stamp of approval upon one particular kind of prayer or one particular form of religious services.”

The First Amendment to our Constitution states quite clearly that the government “shall make no law” that sanctions a particular religion.

So … what does that mean? The amendment doesn’t not limit government just to Congress, or just to county courthouses, or city halls. Any government entity, and that includes public school systems, must avoid ordering citizens to be indoctrinated into any specific religion.

I want to say as well that the amendment also declares that the government must not “prohibit the free exercise thereof” a religion. What I assume from that? I presume that citizens — and that includes public school students — are free to pray whenever and wherever they please.

I’ve heard it quipped over many years that “for as long as schools present final exams, students will be praying in school.”

So, let the students pray on their own without being forced to pray to a specific deity. I say this as a man of faith who believes with all my heart that religion should be taught at home and in our houses of worship … not in our public schools!

legal news

Gaetz is gone; good riddance!

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Matt Gaetz spared himself the embarrassment of being denied a seat in the Trump administration Cabinet by pulling his name out of consideration to be the next attorney general.

I would offer a word of praise to Gaetz … except he doesn’t deserve any good word from me.

Gaetz had no business being considered for a post that demands extreme moral rectitude from the individual who occupies it. Gaetz had been investigated for sex trafficking, for having sex with an underage girl and for use of illicit drugs. The House ethics committee compiled a report that allegedly contains a ton of sordid details.

Now, he wasn’t ever charged with a crime. The report is still out there. House Republicans have blocked its release so far. Gaetz’s decision to back out of the AG search likely will diminish the public’s chances of seeing the report.

I will argue that the public still needs to see what it contains. To what end? To determine the nature of the character of an individual that the incoming president would nominate to become attorney general of the United States.

It appears to me that learning about the former AG candidate’s (lack of) character would speak volumes as well about the guy who selected him.

Matt Gaetz is gone … but we still have Donald Trump.

national news

Trump loses majority vote? Pffftt!

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The media are making some noise about Donald Trump losing a majority of the popular vote victory he earned with his Nov. 5 presidential election victory.

His popular vote margin has slipped from about 3% on Election Day to around 1.6% as of today. He has earned about 49.8% of the total vote. It is far from the “mandate” he keeps suggesting he won.

But here’s the deal. He was elected legitimately by earning 312 Electoral College votes; he needed 270 of them to secure victory. The Constitution says candidates need to win a majority of Electoral College votes.

I get it. Begrudgingly … but I get it.

What’s more, earlier presidents also have failed to win popular vote majorities. The most recent example was George W. Bush, who in 2000 finished second to Al Gore, but won just barely enough Electoral College votes, thanks to the infamous 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that stopped the recount of ballots in Florida.

Bill Clinton won election and re-election with fewer than 50% of the popular vote. So did John F. Kennedy in 1960. Same for Harry Truman in 1948.

You get the picture, I am sure.

The media need not spend so much effort wondering about the “mandate” that doesn’t exist for Trump. A mandate occurs when presidents score landslide victories, a la Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. Trump’s victory, while significant, doesn’t fall into the category of sweeping mandate for wholesale change.

When they count all the votes and Kamala Harris ends up with more actual votes than Trump, well … then we can talk some more.

Donald Trump

Trump fills out clown show cast

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Donald J. Trump continues to fill out his cast of Cabinet-level goofballs, fruitcakes and assorted loyalists … just as he promised he would prior to the 2024 presidential election.

The latest cast member to sign on is Linda McMahon, the former exec with the World Wrestling and Entertainment outfit run by her husband, Vince McMahon. Linda McMahon has been nominated to be our nation’s education secretary.

Her education credentials? The silence you hear is evidence that she doesn’t have anything in her background. No administration experience. Nothing, man!

But … she is a Trump loyalist along with attorney general nominee and one-time DOJ investigative target Matt Gaetz, Fox News blowhard and defense nominee Pete Hegseth, Kennedy political scion and anti-vaxxer health and human services boss RFK Jr., and Russian agent and director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard.

I mean, good grief! What the hell is the POTUS-elect seeking to do here?

The only good news I can find is that there appear to be enough Republican senators who are finding their long-squishy backbone to block many of the nuttiest of the nut jobs Trump has gathered around him.

Uncategorized

A word about Sabol

Readers of this blog have been patient and receptive to my tales about Toby the Puppy, the pooch who was a key family member for nine years.

I lost him to cancer on Dec. 1, 2023, an event that continues to fill me with sadness.

However, upon returning from vacation September, I had the good fortune to meet another Chihuahua mix puppy named Sabol. We fell in love with each other immediately. She joined the family and — as God is my witness — she has exhibited many of the traits that endeared me to Toby.

Sabol is smart. She is so very affectionate. She is a road warrior in the pickup. When it’s bedtime, she responds to the words “It’s bedtime” by running straight to her bed. 

Whereas Toby never got overweight, Sabol joined us with a pudgy midriff. I have put her on a strict meal regimen: A half-cup of kibble and half a Milk Bone in the morning; another half-cup of food and the other Milk Bone half in the afternoon. The result of her eating plan is quite encouraging: she has lost four pounds since September. Sabol has a way to go but she is making exceptional progress. What’s more she has developed a lively spring in her step.

That’s the latest about my new pooch. I will close with this declaration: I must be the luckiest puppy parent imaginable, having hit home runs with two puppies in a row.

Joe Biden, military news

Putin threatens to go MAD

Vladimir Putin needs no explanation of what used to pass as a nuclear deterrence policy followed by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The Russian dictator reportedly is angry that President Biden has given Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to strike deeply into Russia as it seeks to defend itself against Putin’s immoral and illegal invasion of its sovereign neighbor.

What is the Russian goon/thug/madman/tyrant/despot threatening to do? He is threatening to use “tactical nuclear weapons” against Ukrainian forces.

Let’s see. How do I say this tactfully? Oh, hell. I can’t.

It would be a mistake of catastrophic proportions!

You see, U.S. and Soviet nuclear deterrence was based on a policy of “mutually assured destruction.” Putin, who once led the Soviet system of spooks, knows the policy as well as any Russian alive today.

Using tactical nukes in the largest ground war in Europe since World War II well could produce a response from NATO — and the United States — that could destroy Russia.

Therefore, I am hesitant to buy fully into the notion that Vladimir Putin has gone MAD.

Then again, Putin did invade Ukraine … and his forces are getting their butts kicked in the field of battle.

Donald Trump

Mika and Joe make nice with Trump?

Someone will have to explain to me why the liberal establishment has its shorts in a wad over an interview that two MSNBC hosts had with the next president of the United States.

Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, co-hosts of “Morning Joe,” went to Mar-a-Lago to interview Donald Trump. They said they remain opposed fundamentally to what he intends to do when he becomes president. They said they want to “restart” the dialogue they once had with the future POTUS.

Someone please explain to me why that is a big … deal among those who continue to loathe the future president. You may count me as a “never Trumper” who wouldn’t vote for Trump if he were the last man standing. However, if I was a practicing daily journalist, I would really embrace the chance to talk frankly with him, trying to pin him down on what he intends to do in office.

Brzezinski and Scarborough are real-life wife and husband. I am utterly certain they talked through many nights trying to decide whether this was the right call, given the angry rhetoric they exchanged with Trump in recent years.

Who knows? This effort to restart communication between them and the next POTUS might backfire. If it does, then the critics can bellow “We told you so!” If not, then they are able to do their jobs as journalists and try to plum what passes for a brain in the skull of the next president.