Tag Archives: MAGA

political news

End the political messages … now!

A friend and former colleague beat me to the punch, but I now intend to join him in his call to political strategists, candidates and other policy hacks in this desperate message.

End the incessant demands for money that are flooding my message and email inboxes! Now is a good time to start … or shall I say stop?

The culprits are Democrats seeking to flip Congress. I am hearing from candidates seeking seats on faraway locales at either end of the country. I delete them as soon as I discover them. I usually follow the deletion with a message to discontinue the deluge. It’s no good. You see, for as often as I delete the message and get acknowledgment that they won’t send me any more messages, other pop up like weeds in the Texas spring.

I am growing increasingly tempted to pull the hair off my skull by the roots.

I might hear from the occasional MAGA-inspired correspondent seeking to boost Donald Trump’s agenda. But it’s almost always Democrats who I reckon know the nature of High Plains Blogger or I have communicated with in some back-handed fashion. They’re going for the jugular. Only in this case it’s my jugular.

Well, I have made my pitch. If you see me around town with splotches of hair missing from my noggin, you’ll know how they got there.

State news

Going to wait until the end

Truth be told, I actually pondered casting my vote early for the Texas primary election set for May 3 … then I thought differently about it.

That said, I am going to return to my usual manner of voting on Election Day.

All the fire and volleys have been lobbed in the Republican Party primary. The race for Texas attorney general has me confused. The MAGA gang is pounding Congressman Chip Roy for backing Liz Cheney and for voting to impeach Donald Trump. If I were voting in that primary, I would consider that a plus for Roy.

Roy is answering by saying he’s actually a Trump loyalist. Whatever … he’s trying to eat the whole cake.

My eyes are set on the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. It’s down to two fine candidates. Texas state Rep. James Talirico and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Talirico hails from San Antonio; Crocket calls Dallas home.

I’m leaning toward supporting Talirico. I like his deep religious faith that he doesn’t shove aside. He proclaims he’s a fighter, but distances himself from the Christian nationalists who comprise much of the MAGA base.

I long have resisted voting early over a fear of casting my vote and then being disappointed if my candidate messes up before Election Day. I am going to follow that path again this election cycle … and then hope for the best from the individuals I hope to support.

national news

The saga continues …

There is not a single thing about the Donald Trump story I find to be “heroic,” but it surely has been a lengthy tale of tumult, a bit of woe and certainly drama.

I, along with many millions of American patriots, am anxious for the end to arrive. No one can predict how this matter will conclude. We’ll have an election in November, the result of which could turn Trump into a real-life lame duck who can wait it out until the end of his term in the White House.

Or the election, if it goes according to what the experts are predicting, will produce a ton of tempest … if Democrats win back control of the U.S. House and possibly even the U.S. Senate.

What happens then? I am quite certain an impeachment lies directly in Trump’s future. It’ll be the third such effort to remove Trump from the office he has pretended to serve for five of the past nine years.

Trump’s time in the White House has been all that many of us feared it would be and what Trump actually predicted would occur. He told us he would be the “retribution” his MAGA supporters sought. By golly, he’s delivered the goods, man.

I listen occasionally to the back-and-forth between congressional Democrats and Trump administration officials testifying before committees and I am left to wonder: How in the name of collegiality can the two sides bridge the chasm that divides them? I know the answer. They cannot.

We’ll have to weather more of what we have seen for as long as Donald Trump remains in office.

The question that will linger is this: Will the POTUS be standing for the remainder of his term?

national news, political news

Will I survive these days of tumult?

Every now and then, the thought of survival crosses my noggin … particularly after Donald Trump has inflicted more than his usual share of havoc on our beloved democratic republic.

Before I venture too deeply into the weeds, I want to declare that my “survival” does not involve my presence in this world of ours. I have zero intention of ending my life. I do, though, worry about my state of mental capacity at times when I see the man elected POTUS ranting on incessantly and incoherently about this or that matter of the moment. Then I wonder: How in the name of the founding fathers did this clown ever get elected?

That’s water over the ol’ dam, if you will. He did get elected and there’s nothing we can do about what’s happened. We can, though, control the future. Which gives me reason to cling to my sanity.

My hope for a brighter future is beginning to glow a little more brightly. Republicans in Congress are starting to grow spines by opposing Trump. They’re voting against his initiatives. They’re pissing the RINO in chief off royally (no pun intended) and he is responding with social media tirades that sound as if they’re coming from a junior high school hot head.

Some are suggesting that Trump’s mental acuity (if that’s what we should call it) is slipping away. I have declared my intention to stay away from that guessing game and I won’t engage in it here … other than to report what others might be saying.

All of this is allowing me to hold onto my sanity.

I realized a long time ago that I should never take myself too seriously. Today I am searching for a way to transfer that self-awareness into the issues that keep nipping at our heels.

I once took politics too seriously. That was in the late 1960s when it became a matter of life or death to young men of my age. I got through all of that and have settled into a quiet life of semi-retirement. The issues today are just as serious as they were in the old days. I am just seeking to cling to the marbles rattling around in my skull.

Donald Trump

The insult list goes on and on and on …

Counting the top 50 or 100 lists of insults leveled by Donald John Trump would be an exercise in futility.

Hell, I cannot even come up with a top 5, 10 or 20 insults. Why the futility? Because Trump is surely to top any of them before the sun goes down on any given day.

Yeah, I have my “favorites,” although I use that word with an abundance of cynicism. I dare not mention any fof them here because they no doubt will not fall on everyone’s top list of Trump insults and epithets. He is almost certain to make an even more stupid statement.

As an observer of many things political, I am left to respond at times in the moment to insults that fly out of the shithead in chief’s mouth or watch him display his uncanny boorishness in front of the world that is too stunned to react.

I am declaring, therefore, an end to any effort to measure the level of depravity that Trump may sink. It’s beyond measure. The stick I would use to plumb its depths doesn’t have enough measuring units.

I am left to comment on his pronouncements as he declares them. I also seek to measure the damage they do to (a) our ability to govern and (b) our standing in a world community where we once stood as the “leader of the free world.”

At the moment, we can barely govern ourselves and only God knows what world leaders in their nations’ capitals are saying about Trump when his back is turned.

Whoever would have thought that we could measure our presidential leadership on levels of stupidity?

national news, political news

MAGA did it! Elections are work of demons!

If I were wearing a cap at this moment, I might be inclined to doff it in salute to the MAGA cult that comprises the bulk of what remains of the Republican Party.

Why the salute … even though it is a left-handed, fingers crossed tribute?

The MAGA morons seem to have successfully cast the American electoral process into enough doubt as to bring whole sale changes in the way many states conduct them. Texas is one of them. We’ve returned to paper ballots in Texas, tossing out the electronic ballots that used to streamline vote counting. We also have to provide photo ID when we go to the polls to vote.

It’s all been in the messaging and MAGA’s stern discipline in staying on message as it tells lie after lie after lie about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from Donald J. Trump. The MAGA cult is continuing the lies and they stick in the gullible minds of millions of Americans.

What saddens me endlessly is the damage that MAGA has done to the millions of hard working local and county officials across the nation who ensure that these elections are conducted freely, fairly and legally. I’ve worked some of the finest public officials in two states over the years covering elections and I have found them all to be men and women of good conscience. They did their jobs well and in accordance with state and federal laws.

MAGA is having none of it. Neither is their MAGA moron in chief, Trump, who just this week assailed the conduct the 2020 election. It is no coincidence, I should add, that the local jurisdictions Trump cited are those run by Black officials. Racism, anyone … anyone?

I believe the midterm election will be run legally. I place my faith in the men and women I know who are on the front line protecting our right to free and fair elections.

And the only election rigging I have seen has occurred in the Oval Office.

crime news

How can they deny the obvious?

I don’t why I am surprised, but the notion that Repuiblicans in Congress who fled for their safety on Jan. 6, 2021 are now denying what happened on the day of the insurrection does astound me beyond measure.

I cannot believe any of them when they say the attack on the Electoral College that day was no big deal, that Donald Trump did nothing wrong by refusing to call for the end of the traitors’ assault on the electoral process. Yet they did so again when special counsel Jack Smith offered testimony explaining the process that led his team to conclude beyond any doubt that Trump broke the law on that horrible day.

I will go to my grave without ever forgiving them for their betrayal of their oath to protect the Constitution and for allowing Trump to get away with the crimes he clearly committed.

 

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.

Donald Trump

Time to work for all of us, Mr. POTUS

Donald Trump keeps insisting wrongly — and stupidly — that he won the 2024 presidential election in a landslide over Vice President Kamala Harris.

He did no such thing. He finished with a couple million more votes than Harris. Yes, he did capture all those “battleground states.” However, his vote total didn’t add up to a majority; he won by a nominal plurality over Harris.

So … let’s toss the landslide talk aside. It just didn’t happen.

This is my way of saying, therefore, that it is time for Trump to govern as the only elected official — oh, yeah, so is VP J.D. Vance — who is elected nationally. If he is going to say that he won in a landslide, then he absolutely needs to pull away a bit from the MAGA cult that constitutes his base of supporters. It fascinates me to no end to watch the MAGA bloc begin to fracture, which tells me that Trump is even weaker than he lets on.

Still, he clings to the fantasy of a landslide victory. If he is going to continue to persuade himself of such idiocy, then he ought to govern accordingly. End the immigration crackdown in major cities; roll back those moronic tariffs; stop insisting we are a Christian nation when we clearly are a secular state; end the fixation with ridding the statutes of the term Obamacare, which MAGAites detest because it carries the name of the 44th president of the United States.

You and I know none of that will happen. Donald Trump isn’t smart enough to figure out that if he’s going to say he won big, then he ought to govern the same way.

crime news

Hold it, masked men!

Ask yourself this question, which I believe is pertinent to the issues discussion we are having these days in the U.S. of A.

How would I feel if I were stopped by a burly dude, armed to the teeth, wearing a flak jacket, with the word “ICE” emblazoned on his chest … and all the while he is hiding his face behind a pullover mask that only reveals his eyes?

My first response? I would be scared feces-less at the sight. I wouldn’t know what to say to any question this fellow might pose.

Now, look, under normal circumstances I couldn’t care less what a law enforcement professional is wearing. These days it’s different, so I am going to comment briefly on the public relations image these ICE agents are presenting to a public that has grown angry at their presence.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has become a stand-alone word, kinda like MAGA and FUBAR.

These agents charged with finding undocumented immigrants, arresting them and then deporting them present a frightening image not just to those on their target list but to anyone, even those with nothing to fear.

It’s the masks, man, that give these guys their intimidating image.

I guess it must be the type of image Donald Trump wants to project, given his own stated admiration for world leaders who govern with an iron hand. He wishes he could do so in the United States, except for the Constitution that limits the power of the president.

As one of millions of Americans who are paying for this dog-and-pony show, I just have to declare my own disgust at the image these ICE agents are projecting while terrorizing fellow human beings. Those who are being terrorized deserve to see the faces of those who are bullying them.