Tag Archives: social media

Control yourself, Agriculture Commissioner Miller

Sid Miller is fond of making a spectacle of himself. He has done so again in a most interesting and unexpected — for him, apparently — manner.

The Texas agriculture commissioner came to Amarillo and had a meal at a well-known downtown restaurant, OHMS, between Sixth and Seventh Avenue on Tyler Street.

Someone else brought all this to my attention … also via social media. So, I took a look.

It seems that Miller didn’t like his meal. He said so. In no uncertain terms. He wrote a nasty note to the owner of OHMS, a fellow named Josh Fuller, who then put the note on Facebook. He’s sharing Miller’s boorishness with, well, the entire world.

miller-note

“Terrible steak,” he wrote. He griped that it wasn’t a ribeye.

Why mention this? It just seems that the age of social media has this ability to embarrass public officials who ought to know better than to write their feelings down — enabling others to blast it around the planet on media platforms.

I’m unaware of anyone ever accusing Miller of being a man who adheres to proper decorum. Why not, for instance, just tell the server or perhaps the business owner that the meal didn’t his expectation? Oh, no! He had to write it down! This also is the guy who used a hideous profanity — on Twitter, no less — to describe Hillary Rodham Clinton. Allegedly.

I guess Miller has his fans.

Suffice to say, the owner of a prominent downtown Amarillo restaurant/bistro isn’t one of them.

Trump’s flack talks against … Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mslTcisduqI

 

Kellyanne Conway leveled a most unusual criticism over the weekend.

Her boss, Donald J. Trump, has invited Mitt Romney to visit with him for the purpose of deciding whether he wants the 2012 Republican presidential nominee to be the next secretary of state.

Conway, though, doesn’t want Mitt to take the job. He doesn’t want the president-elect to consider him for the job.

I cannot remember ever hearing a transition flunky question out loud the actions of a president-elect. Not one time have I heard such a thing.

However, this is what is happening.

Conway managed the Trump campaign to victory against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Trump is the president-elect. Conway is his hired hand. She works for him.

Now she’s questioning his judgment in interviewing Mitt Romney for the most visible Cabinet post in the new administration?

I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts the chaos that has developed in the Trump transition effort. I believe Conway’s anti-Mitt rhetoric illustrates the chaos perfectly.

Taking a one-day break from politics and public policy

cornucopiathanksgiving

I am going to join some of my fellow social media pals and refrain from talking politics today.

There. That’s the extent of my mention of the p-word.

Instead, I’m going to concentrate my energy on other matters.

I might watch a football game or two … but don’t hold me to that.

Dinner awaits. It won’t be a huge affair for my wife, son and me. It’s just the three of us, so we have decided to go easy on ourselves.

I’m going to scroll through the Internet throughout the day to catch up on the news. I won’t mention any of it here today. Tomorrow is another day.

I might even brush up on social media-speak. For example, I don’t yet know how to use the word “meme” properly. I’ll take a minute to look it up. My trusty American Heritage desk dictionary likely doesn’t even have it listed. I guess I’ll go online to find the meaning of the word. Wish me luck there.

I believe, though, I’ll spend the bulk of my day giving thanks quietly.

Thanks go to the fact that we live in such a wonderful and, yes, a great nation. I always give thanks to my family, who I cherish more than life itself. I am thankful for the good health I continue to enjoy.

I will give thanks, finally, for the opportunity I am granting myself to forgo commenting on the many things that have caused me great anxiety over the past few months. (See? I didn’t mention the p-word.)

That, too, can wait for another day.

Until then, let’s all enjoy this uniquely American holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

More and more from President-elect Tweet

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Tempting as it is, I believe I will refrain from engaging one of my baser instincts.

I won’t mess with the name of the next president of the United States.

His name is Trump … Donald J. Trump.

He relies heavily — perhaps too much so — on one social media platform, Twitter, to put out pithy and often inaccurate messages.

The temptation is this: Do I refer to him henceforth as President Tweet?

I am leaning against doing such a thing. President Obama’s name has been turned into unrecognizable versions of his given moniker. Truth be told, I have been subjected to a kind of bastardization of my own last name. When I was a kid, my runnin’ buddies would twist my name into, oh, “Cantaloupe,” or “Ka-knuckles.”

Trump himself has attached pejorative descriptions to his foes’ names: Lyin’ Ted, Crooked Hillary, Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb. They’re all real knee-slappers, yes? Does the president-elect, therefore, deserve a healthy dose of his own medicine?

Nah!

Then again, if he continues to rely on Twitter as a primary source of communication with the nation he is about to lead, the president-elect just might tempt me beyond my strength.

Total strangers become foes, even enemies

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One of the downsides — and there aren’t many of them — of writing a blog is that I might be guilty of turning total strangers into enemies.

I post these musings on my High Plains Blogger website. I then transmit them via several social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, Google and LinkedIn. My aim, of course, it to maximize exposure for this blog with the hope of getting those with whom I’m connected on all those sites to share these messages with their friends and social media acquaintances.

That’s straightforward enough, don’t you think?

But then something happens. My friends/”friends” on Facebook start tangling with each other. They read what is circulated on that social medium and respond to it. Then someone else reads the response and responds to that; it’s quite often — if not mostly — a negative response. That draws a rebuttal, which then attracts another reply.

On and on it goes, too often to no good end.

I do not like getting ensnared in this back-and-forth. I prefer to stay — if you’ll pardon the high-minded tone — “above the fray.”

I put the stuff out there, having stated my piece. Then I let others have at it.

Now, if someone asks me a direct question that requires a direct answer, I’m inclined to answer it. But I don’t always respond. I also might respond to an insult, which I do get occasionally.

The upshot of this is that while I (more or less) regret the hard feelings that erupt on occasion from those who respond to my blog spewage, I won’t back off from sending this stuff out there.

It provides great therapy, even if it comes on occasion with a bit of angst over the anger that boils up.

***

I made what some might consider to be a strange reference in this blog post. I describe my Facebook contacts thusly: friends/”friends.”

I do that to delineate between actual friends and those who I know only through Facebook. I have a number of folks out there who I consider to be — if not friends in the classic sense — friendly acquaintances. Truth be told, my actual friends amount to a tiny fraction of those with whom I have a friendly relationship.

There are others I know only because we’ve connected on social media. Those are the “friends” to whom I refer.

So, there you have it. To my many friends/”friends,” I say: Peace be with you.

Irony clouds Melania’s message

cyberbullying

I hope y’all are sitting down.

I’m about to say something positive about Melania Trump, wife of the Republican presidential nominee who — in my view — is totally unfit and unqualified to occupy the office he is seeking.

She spoke this week about cyber bullying and said she intends to make that her signature issue if she becomes first lady.

The issue is a noble one. The goal is equally noble. She has articulated a serious problem in contemporary society. Children shouldn’t be bullied in any context, she said, particularly by faceless and nameless abusers who hide their identity in the vast reaches of cyberspace.

The problem, though, is the messenger. Melania Trump is married to a serial cyber bully. Donald Trump has used his Twitter account to bully and insult women, Gold Star parents, Muslims, Hispanics, immigrants … you name ’em, he’s bullied ’em.

The irony of Melania’s first lady theme is too obvious to ignore.

Still, the issue — standing alone and separate from the context in which she delivered it — is a worthy one.

Cyber bullying must stop … no kidding!

melania

Melania Trump said what?

She wants to make cyber bullying the top priority of her potential first ladyship?

Oh, the irony. The lack of spousal awareness. This is amazing!

Trump’s major solo speech today highlighted what she wants to do in case her husband Donald gets elected president next week.

Cyber bullying is her target. It’s got to end, she said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/melania-trump-says-she%e2%80%99ll-fight-cyber-bullying-as-first-lady/ar-AAjREmA?li=BBnbcA1

OK, she can start at home. With her husband.

Donald Trump has used his Twitter account to call broadcast journalist Megyn Kelly a “bimbo.” He has used it also to allege the existence of “sex tapes” involving former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, about whom he has said many other unflattering things … also on social media.

She said this, among other things: “Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers,” Trump said Thursday afternoon in Pennsylvania.

Melania Trump, quite naturally, made no mention of her husband’s cyber-bullying history.

Trust me on this: The irony cannot possibly be lost on many of us who understand just how much her husband has contributed to the coarsening of political discourse.

Obscene tweet a ‘breaking point’? If only …

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Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s obscene tweet about Hillary Rodham Clinton is the “breaking point” for at least one Texas voter.

Is it for others who have been entrenched in the Donald J. Trump camp since the zillionaire business mogul announced his Republican presidential candidacy?

Do not take it to the bank.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/11/02/agriculture-commissioner-sid-millers-c-word-tweet-hillary-clinton-breaking-point

A tweet that went out under Miller’s name referred to Clinton as the “c-word.” It’s too vulgar to repeat. As Jacquielyne Floyd of the Dallas Morning News writes in her blog, Miller came up with a package of lame excuses: a staffer did it; someone hacked his account.

Miller said he didn’t do such a thing. The tweet was pulled down right away, which I guess is saying something about the commissioner.

Then again, this guy has been making a spectacle of himself ever since he took over the TDA office from fellow Republican Todd Staples in 2015. I wish Staples was still on the job, frankly.

Miller has emerged as Trump’s chief Texas cheerleader.

Floyd writes: “My weary, overworked outrage meter is idling in low gear, like persistent background static on the radio. I can only summon a tired wonder that Miller, whose newest contretemps is perhaps the most egregious but far from being the first rodeo of disgrace and embarrassment he has attended, is the kind of damage Texas keeps inflicting on itself.”

Texas, though, seems bent on inflicting these wounds. We have sent a number of folks to Congress who keep spouting off without engaging what passes for their brains.

Now we have an agriculture commissioner — who ought to be focused primarily on promoting Texas farm and ranch products and helping them improve their harvest yields and getting the most money they can from the livestock they send to market.

The voter — Kathleen Lyle of Rowlett — who was offended beyond measure by the tweet, wrote a letter to Miller. According to Floyd: “Lyle demanded an apology for every woman and every schoolchild in the state of Texas: “‘You are obligated to behave decently in public once elected,’ she told him.”

Floyd continued: “It was a letter that summed up not only one woman’s frustration over one elected official’s outrageous violation, but spoke for countless Americans who are appalled by the ugliness, the unhinged vulgarity, the puerile bullying shoutdown to which the political conversation has devolved.”

The tweet that went out under Sid Miller’s name is just the latest example of all the above.

If only more of us would feel as outraged as Kathleen Lyle.

Pondering a Facebook decision

facebook-like-button

This shouldn’t cause me to suffer any heartburn — proverbial or real — but it is.

I’m pondering whether to take an extended break from Facebook. I’m writing this post on my blog, but it will go to Facebook as well, which brings me to my point.

I am addicted to blogging. I also have become addicted to Facebook. I don’t mind spending the time it takes to write these messages on High Plains Blogger. I do get a bit annoyed with the time I’m spending on Facebook reading responses to these posts.

Then we have the back-and-forth that occasionally ensues.

They wear me out. I don’t have the emotional stamina or energy to engage my friends/”friends” ad infinitum.

I won’t get too deeply into the other things that annoy me about Facebook: the profanity, the nonsense, the hate.

I haven’t yet made up my mind. Other members of my family have declared their desire to do the same after the election. I might join them in their Facebook moratorium. Or …. I might not.

I’ll keep pounding out these messages on my blog. I do not want to wean myself of this particular fix. It’s too much fun.

If I make the big decision — and cure myself of the heartburn in the process — and forgo Facebook for a time, then I’ll just ask those interested in reacting to these blog posts to do so on the “reply” tab attached to the bottom of those posts.

You’ll see one here. Let me know if you think I’m all wet.

Trump is committing political suicide

694940094001_5164431143001_examining-speaker-ryan-s-history-of-support-for-donald-trump

I have reached the incontrovertible conclusion that Donald J. Trump has just taken flight on a political kamikaze mission.

The Republican presidential nominee has determined two things:

* He cannot defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for president.

* He is going to take as many of the Republican establishment hierarchy with him as he goes down in flames.

That can be the only conclusion to draw from his declaration of war against House Speaker Paul Ryan, arguably the nation’s most powerful Republican, the second in line in presidential succession, the guy who runs the legislative chamber where all fiscal matters are given birth.

I don’t have personal knowledge, of course, that Trump has surrendered the contest to Clinton. I merely am able to see and hear with my own eyes and ears what is happening.

He has been heard saying some hideous things about women. His poll numbers are plummeting. He didn’t deliver the goods in that second debate with Clinton. The polls are accelerating in Clinton’s favor.

Trump cannot win.

Moreover, I read today an item that suggests that independent candidate Evan McMullen, the Republican/Mormon challenger to both Clinton and Trump, has pulled even with them both, putting reliably Republican Utah of all places — where McMullen lives — into play.

They’re calling it a “scorched Earth” retreat. Trump says he is “unshackled” now by Ryan’s declaration that he won’t defend Trump or campaign on his behalf. Trump’s going to take the gloves off — not just with Clinton but with Republicans.

His tweet machine is being revved up for the final month of this miserable campaign. Trump is indicating a desire to let ‘er rip with snark-filled comments about Ryan, Clinton, Sen. John McCain — and anyone else who speaks critically of the nominee’s lack of credentials, qualifications, temperament or moral fitness to hold the job he is seeking.

It’s just amazing in the extreme that Trump would seek to take on the speaker of the House in this manner. All it tells me at this point is that he knows he hasn’t a chance of winning. So, he’s locked and loaded and is going out with guns blazing.