Monthly Archives: November 2017

military news

Trump sure has a way with words

Donald John “Quipster in Chief” Trump Sr. is the master of context and impeccable timing.

The president welcomed some Navajo veterans of World War II. They were the legendary Code Talkers who helped win the U.S. combat effort in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

The White House event was set up to honor those veterans, all gallant Marines. So what does the president do? The idiot in chief decided to shoot a barb at a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate.

According to The Hill: Trump said the Code Talkers “were here long before any of us were here,” referencing, I suppose, their Native American heritage. Then the said, “Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”

What a knee-slapper!

His reference is to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who Trump has been deriding for years because Warren claims to have some Native American ancestry in her background.

The former Marines didn’t react to Trump’s dig. Hmm. Imagine that. They are too dignified to get snookered into that kind of childishness.

Read The Hill story here.

For the record, the Code Talkers were deployed in the Pacific Theater to communicate battle plans and intelligence in their native language, which the enemy couldn’t decipher. Precious few of these brave men are left.

The president simply couldn’t salute these men’s valiant service to their country during its darkest time without offering a stupid remark about a contemporary political opponent?

Is this what his fans call “telling it like it is”?

I prefer to call it a demonstration of stupidity.

entertainment news

Trump now says ‘Access Hollywood’ tape is fake … eh?

My head is about to explode.

Donald John “Groper in Chief” Trump Sr. now suggests that the audio recording that almost covered him up in some serious political doo-doo might be a fake.

I’m talking about that 2005 recording of Trump boasting about how he could grab women by their private parts because he’s such a star, a celebrity. That status, he boasted to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, gave him license to do terrible things to women.

It’s Trump’s voice on the recording. Of that, anyone who’s heard it can say with supreme confidence.

If the recording is not Trump, that it’s a fake as he reportedly told a U.S. senator, then who is it? Did someone impersonate the man who would become president of the United States?

Read Newsweek story here.

And while I wouldn’t call Trump’s response to the criticism of the recording when it became known in October 2016 an actual apology, he did have an “explanation” of it in real time. Trump called it “locker room talk,” which I guess was his way of acknowledging that he did say those hideous things.

Now he’s trying to, um, take it all back. He’s suggesting the recording is inauthentic.

This won’t surprise readers of High Plains Blogger, but I … do … not … believe the president’s apparent denial. 

The prevaricator in chief, though, seems intent on denying the obvious. Hey, wasn’t he just “telling it like it is”?

entertainment news, medical news

Film creates a guilty conscience

Have you ever seen a film that leaves you with a guilty conscience?

I just saw such a film. Today. I sat between my wife and son for a couple of hours watching “Wonder.” The parents in the film are portrayed by a couple of well-known actors: Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson.

But then there’s this boy, the “wonder” in the eyes of his mother. Jacob Tremblay portrays a youngster named August Pullman, who was born with a serious facial deformity.

Auggie is home schooled by his mother. Then his parents decide to send him to a prep school in New York City. He gets the expected harsh reaction from fellow fifth-graders when he enters the school. Auggie powers through the ridicule, the taunts, the hideous give-and-take that middle schoolers are so capable of delivering.

I won’t give any more of the plot away. It is, simply put, just about the sweetest film I have seen since, oh, I can’t remember when.

The film is based on a novel, which by definition is a fictional story. Auggie’s story, though, does mirror the real-life story of a young man named Nathaniel Newman, who was born with Treacher Collins syndrome. Nathaniel’s story was detailed on a recent edition of “20/20” on ABC-TV.

In the film and in real life, the boys who are affected by this syndrome are just as normal as any children with whom they interact. Auggie happens to be a science genius who loves the space program and wants to walk someday on the surface of the moon.

My guilt comes from the gripes I level at seemingly trivial matters. I get stopped by traffic? I complain about it. Someone cuts in front of me at the grocery store? I grumble under my breath. My favorite football team loses a close game? I curse the television set.

Then I witness on film the portrayal of a little boy who has to go through life with a struggle that too few of us can understand and appreciate. I read about another little boy with precisely the same condition and wonder: Could I be so noble and gracious in light of such struggle as he faces each day in the real world?

It makes me ask myself: Why in this world should I ever complain about anything ever again?

education news, local news

Bushland ISD ought to start over with search

I almost couldn’t believe what I read: Bushland Independent School District is about to hire a superintendent whose previous district is facing potentially severe sanctions from the Texas Education Agency.

Bushland ISD, just west of Amarillo, has for years been a district on the move — in the right direction. It has experienced tremendous growth; just a few years ago it opened a high school.

Then when a vacancy occurred at BISD’s top administrative job with the announcement that Superintendent Dan Wood wanted to retire, school trustees started looking for a new superintendent. You’d think BISD would be able to have its pick of top administrators.

Then it selected Chris Wigington, superintendent of Big Spring ISD, as its lone finalist for the Bushland job.

Now we hear that Big Spring has struggled academically and that it has what is reported as “failing campuses.” TEA reportedly is about to slap some sanctions on Big Spring ISD.

This begs the question: Can Bushland do better than this in searching for a superintendent? I believe it can.

I also believe it should.

local news

Happy Trails, Part 57

The question keeps coming at my wife and me: When are you moving?

The answer is beginning to change, I am happy to say. I can answer with some certainty: “We’re closer today than we were yesterday, but we don’t yet have a date. Although a date is beginning to present itself way out there on the horizon.”

I have mentioned in this blog that our pace is accelerating. It still is.

Our days of late have been spent clearing out the house we used to call “home.” If I haven’t mentioned it in this blog, I’ll do so now: I married Wonder Woman more than 46 years ago.

She is an expert at this moving thing. She’s a master packer of possessions. She makes virtually all the critical moving decisions. I abide by them. I also simply do what I’m told to do. She issues the orders, I follow them. It’s that simple, man.

But the truth is that our retirement journey is on the verge of making an important turn toward our destination. The mover is coming very soon. He will haul our possessions away. The house will be empty.

We will clean it up with brooms, vacuum, mop and bucket and window cleaner.

Then very soon we’ll ask a Realtor — who happens to be a friend — to come see us. She’ll assess the value of our home, make recommendations on what to do to give it maximum marketability. We’ll proceed rapidly from there.

Then we’ll stick a sign in the front yard.

I have been fond of saying that we all need one final challenge in their life. Our final major challenge is at hand.

I’ve heard from more than one of my retired friends who have said that they’ve “never been busier” than since they quit working for a living.

I get it.

media news

Trump keeps diminishing the presidency

Now it’s CNN’s fault. The news network is doing a poor job of “representing” the United States of America around the world, says the president of the United States.

There you go. It’s not the president who’s representing the greatest nation Earth. The man says it’s CNN’s responsibility.

Hey, Mr. President. It’s your job! You’re the man whose job is to carry the U.S. torch around the world.

Donald John Trump had tweeted a message extolling how Fox News is more important than CNN. Imagine my (non)surprise with that one, if you can. Fox’s commentators are among the president’s major media fans. They speak glowingly of him, so that means Fox is the go-to media outlet in Trump’s view.

He fired off that tweet about CNN. The network answered the president, telling him that it’s CNN’s job to “report the news” and that it’s Trump’s job to be the nation’s standard-bearer.

A man who understands the presidency would know that. Someone with any knowledge of the institution he now leads would grasp the importance of the office, the majesty it commands and the decorum that’s required of the individual who occupies it.

Trump doesn’t get it. He likely never will. He’ll continue to engage in petty, stupid, insipid Twitter tirades.

He’ll continue to diminish his office.

So very sad.

national news

Anyone can be Person of the Year, correct?

It occurs to me that if Donald John Trump can say anything he wants, then so can the rest of us .

The president of the United States tweeted something this weekend about Time magazine considering him to be Person of the Year for 2017. Trump got the award in 2016 by virtue of his being elected president. I get why Time would bestow Person of the Year honors.

But the president didn’t really get a call from Time, the magazine’s editors apparently said. That doesn’t matter, though. Trump isn’t taking it back. He doesn’t do that kind of thing. I’m getting the idea that the nation the man was elected to lead is beginning to accept his lies. Pfft! What’s the point of calling him out?

Is he the only American who can get away with this kind of thing? Gosh, I think I’ll give this a try.

Time wanted to name me as its Person of the Year. Why little ol’ me? I guess it’s because I’m just a regular guy. I’ve been married to one woman for more than 46 years. We produced two sons. They both are successful in their respective careers. We have a lovely granddaughter. We’re getting prepared to move — hopefully soon — to relocate closer to where she lives with her parents and her two older brothers.

I think that earns me Person of the Year honors. Don’t you think? Maybe my wife and I could share it, given that our accomplishments are a joint effort. How does that sound?

Did the magazine editors actually call me? What if I say they did? They won’t dispute it. Therefore, could I get away with making it up, just like the president did?

I think I could. I just have.

media news, national news

Narcissist in chief is at it again

Donald John Trump Sr.’s narcissism knows no boundaries. No limits. It is beyond belief.

The narcissist in chief has tweeted out a patently ridiculous message, alleging that Time magazine offered to considering him as its 2017 Person of the Year, but that Trump declined.

He didn’t want to sit down for an interview, he said. “No thanks,” he concluded. Time declined to comment specifically on this idiocy, except to say that it doesn’t reveal its selection until it’s announced.

The then president-elect won the honor in 2016, calling it a “tremendous honor” at the time. This year, according to the World’s Most Notable Narcissist, he doesn’t have time for it.

I almost let this matter go without making any comment. Indeed, there’s really little I feel compelled to say about it, except that the president of the United States has yet again embarked on another idiotic — and quite possibly fabricated — journey of self-aggrandizement.

I believe this is what one might call “fake news.”

media news

Malia gets unlikely support

Who would have thought that Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton would be singing off the same hymnbook page?

And to think the object of their shared melody would be Malia Obama.

Ivanka has scolded reporters for essentially stalking Malia while the elder Obama daughter attends Harvard University.

Ivanka tweeted this message: “Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits.” 

There you go. That comes from the daughter — and senior adviser — of the president of the United States.

Then came this from Chelsea Clinton, daughter of another former president and a would-be president who lost the 2016 election to Ivanka’s father: “Malia Obama’s private life, as a young woman, a college student, a private citizen, should not be your clickbait. Be better.” 

Some paparazzi had snapped some pictures of Malia Obama smooching with a Harvard student and — gasp! — smoking a cigarette. The photos went viral, prompting the two presidents’ daughters to come to Malia’s defense.

Indeed, they both understand how the media can pry into people’s private lives, given their own parents’ high profile. Chelsea Clinton even weighed in when some in the media criticized 11-year-old Barron Trump’s wardrobe choices at a public event. Chelsea wrote at the time: “It’s high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves.” 

I’m with Ivanka and Chelsea. Leave Malia alone!

local news

Here is God’s gift to the High Plains

You don’t see any mountainous splendor in this picture.

Instead, you see flat land. You also see a very large sky that seems to be on fire. Those of us who live on the High Plains of Texas got to see this sunset on Black Friday, 2017.

Not a bad way to end the day, if you ask me.

I didn’t take this picture. I did snap a picture of the sunset, but this image comes from a social media acquaintance, Bill Bandy, a fellow Amarillo resident.

I want to share a view with you that I’ve had for as long as my wife and I have lived on the High Plains. It is that God Almighty has a way of paying us back for deciding to put those tall mountains and tall timber in other regions of the country.

My wife and I returned recently from a 4,200-plus-mile journey out west, where we got our full measure of nature’s splendor. The Rockies, the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada — along with the endless stands of tall timber we saw in the Pacific Northwest — all provided plenty of stunning landscapes for us to ogle on our journey to Oregon and back.

We don’t have that kind of scenic splendor out here on the Caprock. We do, though, have a sky that won’t quit. I have said before on this blog that whoever hung the “Big Sky” label on Montana never laid eyes on the Texas Panhandle.

The sky is the Almighty’s way of telling us: I get that I didn’t bless you with terrestrial grandeur, but I hope you appreciate the sunsets — and the sunrises — I am able to provide.

Yes, I do. I’m quite sure we all do.