national news

Time for ‘unity’ … do ya think?

Word out of Donald J. Trump’s campaign headquarters is that the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee is re-writing his acceptance speech.

Reports say he is going to seek to strike a theme of national “unity” in the wake of what we all saw unfold in Butler, Pa., over the weekend.

A gunman opened fire on Trump, grazing his right ear with a bullet. Another man died while protecting his family from the gunfire, two more bystanders were seriously injured … and the Secret Service killed the shooter where he stood with his rifle.

Trump issued a statement immediately after being transported for treatment of his injury. He spoke of the need to stand as one nation and to work to quell the violence that too often is a result of heated political rhetoric.

On Thursday night he will stand before the nation, accept his party’s nomination and reportedly will deliver his unification remarks.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me, I hope the man is sincere, that he means what he says that he will do his part to cool the atmospherics that surround this political season.

President Biden, his opponent in the election, has said the same thing, calling on the nation to step back and to reflect on a fundamental tenet of American politics. It is that we can differ strongly on issues but that we’re all still Americans, we all love the country and that we are not each other’s “enemy.”

Yes, I oppose Donald Trump’s election. I remain grateful and glad that he didn’t suffer a more serious injury from the moron who opened fire.

Now we will get to measure just how much — if at all — this incident might have changed him.

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Politics on hold … for now

Let there be no mistake that I likely will bristle, gnash my teeth, mutter a bad word or three as Republicans seek to make political hay over the event that unfolded shockingly in Butler, Pa.

But out of respect for the political process that is underway and the noble goal of choosing a presidential nominee, I will do all of that quietly.

I won’t take my frustrations out with posts on High Plains Blogger. I am going to declare a very brief moratorium on assassination-attempt political commentary. I won’t predict when it will resume. I merely want the FBI, Secret Service, Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and local police to complete their investigation into what happened over the weekend.

I am quite certain that Trump and his family as well as his cadre of cultists will test my good will with their statements about the political ramifications of those events.

I will add only this, which is my complete endorsement of the way the Secret Service acted in killing the shooter. Sharpshooters arrayed around Trump’s podium drew a bead immediately on the gunman and wasted him, These men and women are the best at what they do and in that instant, they reacted the only way that made sense, given the chaos of the moment.

I will await the right moment to shuck the gloves with regard to Donald J. Trump. Don’t ask when that moment will arrive. I’ll just have to tell you that I’ll know when it does.

environmental news, local news

Birds outsmart me

I have concluded that the term “bird brain” does an injustice to the creatures that actually rely on their brains to get them through life.

I now shall explain.

My wife, our sons and I moved to Texas in 1984, where we discovered right away that the Golden Triangle region of the state is rich in avian creatures. Kathy Anne wanted to treat them, so when we moved into our house in North Beaumont, we set up hummingbird feeders. My goodness, the birds literally flocked into our backyard to partake.

Years later, in early 1995, we moved from Beaumont to Amarillo … way up yonder in the far northwest corner of the state. KA was intent on feeding the Panhandle hummingbirds. Up went the feeders. Although the birds weren’t as plentiful as they were on the Gulf Coast, they did consume the substance we put out for them.

Then we moved again in early 2019, to Colin County, a tad north of Dallas. We set up the feeders again for the hummingbirds to enjoy.

Except that in five years in our house in Princeton, I have seen precisely one hummingbird. Just one! Oh, and what about the feeder’s contents? They disappear. Some birds are consuming this stuff … except they’re doing so when I am looking the other direction.

Go figure, man!

This will stand as my tribute to the fine-feathered creatures God produced for us spoil and for them to confound this smarty-pants human with their evasive tactics.

Hummingbirds, thus, should not be considered a “lower life form.”

national news

Political violence ‘has no place’

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Politicians of every imaginable stripe and conviction are saying the same thing tonight in the wake of an incident at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pa.

Political violence “has no place” in our system of government and politicking, they have said.

Trump spoke today at an outdoor rally. Then he flinched, grabbed at his right ear and sank to the ground. The Secret Service detail assigned to protect the former president were on him in an instant, shielding him from further harm.

Medical personnel rushed Trump to a center where he was treated for what looked like minor injuries to his ear and possibly the right side of his face. The Secret Service issued a statement declaring the former POTUS to be “safe” and “doing fine.”

For that we all should be relieved.

A shooter reportedly is dead. Eyewitnesses reported hearing several noises that sounded like gunshots. The district attorney then announced the authorities are treating this incident as an “assassination attempt.”

Now comes the difficult part of this commentary. How do we stop the kind of hateful rhetoric we’ve been hearing on the campaign trail? Too many speakers have spoken of doing violence to political protesters. They have lamented the presence of protests, even though the Constitution protects such activity as legitimate free speech.

I would advise Donald Trump himself to take stock of what he has said on the stump and wish for all I can that he cease the kind of rhetoric he has bellowed.

This incident, I fear, is a consequence of the deep divisions that have fractured this great nation.

Joe Biden, national news

‘Vote shaming’ has commenced

There appears to be a tide of “vote shaming” that is swelling across the land as Democrats are now rallying behind their presumptive presidential nominee.

We now are hearing it more loudly and clearly than at any time during the past three presidential cycles. A vote for Donald J. Trump for president is going to relegate the presidency and the nation into a spiral from which neither can recover.

And it is to the ever-lasting shame of those who today remain dedicated to casting their presidential vote for a convicted felon, an admitted philanderer, a man found liable for rape and an individual who admits to groping women.

Democrats are ramping up their message machine to cast shame and embarrassment on the MAGA cultists and the Republican Party leadership who continue to back a man who has been shown to be a fraud, someone who isn’t even close to being the smartest businessman in the room. Indeed, as President Biden has been saying, Trump has filed for bankruptcy “six times, even for a casino” in which had invested. “I didn’t know that was possible,” Biden has said.

President Biden and the Democrats are making Donald Trump the issue in their battle to keep him away from the Oval Office.

They damn sure should make Trump the No. 1 issue in this campaign.

But here we are, wringing our hands over whether Joe Biden is too old and too mentally infirm to run for president. I am teetering on this issue myself and I am not comfortable admitting that. However, you may count me as one American patriot who will gladly cast my ballot for Joe Biden if the choice happens to be Donald Trump.

Those who are standing behind a moral reprobate who is now a convicted felon, someone who embraces tyrants over small-d democrats, well … you deserve the shame you are getting.

local news

City finds way to beat low voter turnout

How do Texas cities do battle with an age-old problem of voter apathy and an inability or reluctance to actually vote for their political leadership?

The city I have called home for the past five years, Princeton, might have the answer. It schedules its municipal elections on the day we choose who should be our next president of the United States.

It’s genius, man!

Princeton will call for an election on Nov. 5 to choose who will serve as mayor. Incumbent Brianna Chacon already has declared her intention to seek another term as mayor. I am not yet aware of who would challenge her. Councilmen Marlo Obera and David Kleiber also are on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Now, normally these elections would come and go and virtually no one in this — or any — Texas city would notice. That’s because municipal and school board elections generally fall onto the laps of 10 to 15% of the voting public.

Princeton won’t have that matter facing it this election day.

The city is home to around 28,000 residents, which means roughly half of them are able to vote. If that’s the case, about 14,000 residents will be able to cast their ballots for mayor, city council and, oh yeah … for president of the United States.

That doesn’t mean that every eligible voter will actually do his or her part as a U.S. citizen on election day. Imagine, though, that a 60% turnout decides who will become mayor of Princeton. That means 8,400 residents will make a decision that, truth be told, will have more direct impact on their lives than the president.

I long have said that democracy functions better when more people vote than fewer of them do. I dislike the notion of handing all that power to someone else.

national news

What should his legacy become?

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Suppose for a moment that President Biden’s parsing of the tea leaves tells him he should no longer seek re-election … what shall be the opening paragraph say about his term as leader of the world’s pre-eminent nation?

I hope it doesn’t mention that he ended his re-election effort over questions about whether he was competent to run the nation for a second term. I want it to focus on what he did accomplish.

He took the reins of power as the nation fought like hell to recover from the COVID pandemic. That battle included rescuing an economy that had tanked. Biden wanted to restore our national “soul,” which had been wounded grievously by the chaos that enveloped the presidency of his immediate predecessor.

By almost any measure one can apply, Joe Biden’s presidency has been a success. He signed legislation that aims to improve our infrastructure, seeks to reduce inflation, and seeks to arm Ukraine in its fight for survival against invading forces from Russia.

Biden has taken executive action to eliminate crushing student debt obligations and has acted with dignity and decorum on the world stage.

All of that might get short shrift in the event President Biden decides to pull the plug on his re-election campaign. Instead, the media will focus on whether he has lost too many steps in his losing fight against Father Time.

Joe Biden’s presidency has been a success and no matter when we start writing the history of this man’s time at the pinnacle of power, I want us to remember that fact first.

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Watergate rears its head

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The specter of Watergate is beginning to make its presence felt in President Biden’s fight to retain his status as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president.

His staff is meeting with prominent Democrats in the House and Senate, all of whom are expressing concern about Biden’s chances of winning re-election against Donald J. Trump, They want him to relinquish the nomination and hand it to a stronger candidate who can defeat Trump in the fall election.

The president, bedeviled by his shocking debate performance the other night, is standing firm. “I am not going anywhere!” he has bellowed.

OK, got it, Mr. President.

In the summer of 1974, the House was getting ready to impeach President Nixon over his role in covering up the Watergate scandal. A group of Republican senators — led by Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania — went to the White House to tell Nixon the following: The House is going to impeach you and the Senate is going to convict you. You should resign now.

Nixon took his friends’ advice and quit the presidency.

Do you see the symmetry between then and now?

It falls on the president to make his decision on what to do. It’s just feeling a bit to me as if a Watergate-era outcome might be in store.

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Most important … ever!

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My active involvement in presidential elections goes back a while, to 1972, when I cast my first vote for president.

And just as surely as the sun rises in the morning, every election cycle has contained the phrase “the most important election in our lifetime.”

I believe the 2024 election fits the bill. It’s the real thing. It appears to be the most important election in our nation’s storied history.

The candidates for president aren’t the best we can offer. The consequence of electing one of these men is what gives the result the heft it deserves.

Where do we stand? The Democratic Party nominee appears to be the incumbent, Joe Biden. Then again …

The president had that debate a few days ago and everything seems to have changed. The party of which he has been a faithful member might be turning on him. Or it might stand firm. He looked and sounded like a doddering old man in that debate and the party faithful is full of doubting members who are concerned about whether he’s up to the job.

The Republican Party nominee? Oh, brother. He is a former POTUS who got impeached twice while in office. He’s now a convicted felon. There might be more convictions on the way. Donald Trump has vowed to sic the Justice Department on his political foes. He well could end our support for Ukraine, which is fighting the Russian invaders. He vows to reverse virtually every law that Biden has signed. Trump has threatened to toss the U.S. Constitution into the shi**er on the first day of his administration.

Consequential election? The most important in US history?

It damn sure looks that way to me.

Are we really and truly ready to throw the very foundation of our government — the one other nations use as their model for freedom and liberty — away because a newly elected president wants to make friends with killers, despots and tyrants?

If we are then … God help us!

national news

Changing my mind daily

A member of my family called today to ask me: What do you think President Biden should do, stay in or pull out of the race?

I had to level with her. My mind changes daily. Yesterday I thought maybe he should pull out. Today I am thinking he should stay.

That’s my answer. It depends on what day it is and whether I have changed my mind overnight. I am prone to do so at my age. Old men like me have that right, if you know what I mean.

I keep hearing that more congressional Democrats are abandoning the president. They want to defeat Donald Trump. They say the ex-POTUS is an existential threat to our national security.

So … who has defeated him already? Who has the experience to take the case directly to Trump’s soft underbelly?

It’s Biden.

So, today I am sticking with President Biden all the way. However, I am feeling malleable.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience