Tag Archives: 2024 election

national news, political news

How does he maintain this grip?

1 Comment

The afterlife awaits every one of us, as no one gets out of here alive.

When my day arrives — and I hope for damn sure it’s no time soon — I will head there with many political questions jostling through my noggin.

Chief among them will be trying to grasp how the 45th POTUS manages to maintain the grip he has secured around the throats of the MAGA cult he has created.

To be sure, it’s seemingly not as large a cult as it once was, but it’s every bit as vocal. The cultists so far are outshouting the rest of the Republican Party faithful … and I mean to say the “real Republicans” who cannot seem to shake loose the grip that the former Liar in Chief has on the MAGA crowd.

My belief in the goodness of humanity is being challenged daily by the ignorance demonstrated by those who glom onto the moron’s every statement. Even when he mangles words or confuses individuals (such as when he recently confused Joe Biden with Barack Obama), they still whoop and holler. Go … figure, man.

I will have to dish out some off-handed praise to the former Idiot in Chief. He has found the audience that adheres to his nonsense, and he speaks plainly to them in a language that only they seem to comprehend.

The rest of us?

We’re left in the dark … and the candidate doesn’t give a sh**!

national news, political news

What is RFK Jr. doing?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bizarre campaign for the presidency has me baffled and bamboozled.

He announced his candidacy first as a Democrat; then he became an independent. This week he selected an entrepreneur/lawyer, Nicole Shanahan, as his vice-presidential running mate.

Why the bafflement? Well, RFK Jr.’s father, the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was my first political hero. I had the pleasure of shaking Bobby Kennedy’s hand in late May 1968, one week before his own presidential bid ended with an assassin’s bullet in Los Angeles.

I am struck by the notion that RFK Jr. would abandon the Democratic Party, given his family’s long affiliation with the party. I am certain his father would be aghast.

What’s more, RFK Jr. professed profound admiration and affection for President Biden even as he was announcing his Democratic presidential campaign. What the … ?

I am puzzled by the reason he wants to become the next POTUS. His conspiracy theories regarding the murder of his father and his idiotic refusal to accept the vaccine offered to battle the COVID 19 pandemic simply send me into orbit.

Will his campaign harm Biden more than the Republican nominee-in-waiting? I haven’t a clue. I have seen polling data that suggest an even draw-down of votes for both major-party candidates. I don’t necessarily believe those polls.

I remain baffled that Bobby Jr. would do this … and to what end.

I also am convinced that his father would take the kid to the proverbial woodshed …

crime news, national news

Pardon the mobsters? Really?

3 Comments

Of all the campaign promises the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee has said, the hands-down deal breaker came when he pledged to issue a presidential pardon to all the criminals who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

So help me Almighty God in heaven, I cannot fathom how this moron can say such a thing. I cannot grasp, moreover, the mindset of those MAGA cultists who continue to endorse the view that these traitors are “hostages” being held by the federal government.

The fall campaign has begun in earnest. The former president has acquired enough GOP delegates to be nominated to run against President Biden, who’s also reeled in enough delegate votes to win the Democratic Party nod.

Indeed, that the Republicans still would even nominate this idiot makes me wonder aloud what has happened to a once-great, once-viable, once-legitimate political organization. It has been captured and “held hostage” — to borrow a phrase — by the dipsh** who is poised to be nominated for the third election cycle in a row.

The entire world witnessed what happened on 1/6. The crowd stormed into the Capitol, smashed windows, attacked D.C. police officers, defecated on the floor of our federal government, brandished signs calling for the lynching of Vice President Pence.

And yet …

We have supposedly serious individuals telling us the mob was behaving peacefully?

The 45th POTUS could have stopped the assault. He didn’t. He allowed it to continue. Now he vows to pardon those who have been arrested and in many cases convicted of felonies?

The former Liar in Chief is getting some pushback from the former chair of the GOP, Ronna Romney McDaniel, who said that as RNC chair, she had to “take one for the team.” Now, she said she is able to “be myself” as a former party chair.

What utter crap!

The former POTUS has sown the seeds of anarchy within the once-great political party.

The list of reasons why this moron should never be elected POTUS is long and getting longer. For my money, the pledge to pardon the traitors who sh** on the Capitol floor is more than enough reason — all by itself — to reject this idiot’s lunacy.

national news, political news

Accusations aren’t ‘false’

A critic of High Plains Blogger has accused me of saying things about the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee that are false.

Well, I am going to challenge that allegation with this brief post.

He writes: You bash Trump with false accusations and give credit to Biden where’s there’s very little credit to be given.

Nothing I have said about the presumptive GOP nominee is “false.” As for “credit” being given to President Biden, I’ll save that comment for another post.

I have said for as long as I have been writing this blog — and it’s been many years — that I do not mind criticism of its content; just don’t ascribe impure motives to me for expressing these views. They are mine alone and I take responsibility for them. As for my motivation, some folks over the years have questioned my faith, and my patriotism. I take a back seat to no one on either matter.

My accusations against the 45th POTUS are based on what juries have determined, what legally constituted prosecutors have said in criminal indictments and even on the visual record of video and audio recordings the world has seen and heard with its own eyes and ears.

The falsehood or the truth about any of it has yet to be determined in courts of law. My sincere and fervent hope is that we get to those determinations sooner rather than later.

I am just going to make this point one more time — and it likely won’t be the final time: The idiot whom Republicans will nominate for POTUS is unfit for any public office in the land.

local news, national news, political news

Democrats seek ‘all-blue vote’

National Democratic Party officials are asking those of us who fear the possibility of a Republican return to power in the White House to do something I find objectionable.

They want us to “vote all blue” throughout the ballots we are going to get on Nov. 5.

I am afraid I cannot do that. Voting straight-Democratic Party line at election time runs counter to my firmly held belief that voters need to examine every race individually and determine who is the better candidate for every position being contested.

I am planning to endorse the Democratic nominees for POTUS and for U.S. Senate in Texas. That’s no surprise to those who read this blog. What might surprise some of you is that I likely will cast my vote for Republican candidates farther down the ballot. Moreover, I am keeping an open mind on the race for the 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House.

I happen to be acquainted with several candidates running for public office in Collin County, where I reside. They belong to both major parties. Am I going to punch the straight-party spot on the ballot without even considering the candidates who represent the other party? I cannot do that in good conscience.

Good government requires voters to exercise their due diligence. I consider myself to be a good-government progressive, which requires me — according to my own definition — to ensure I know the candidates’ stands on issues pertinent to the office they seek.

We have many good men and women running for public office in this county; many of them happen to be Republicans.

Do I want the Democrats to retain the White House? Yes! Do I want the Dems to strengthen their grip on the U.S. Senate? Again, yes. Do I want them to take control of the U.S. House? Ditto on that, too.

There are compelling issues at stake at the presidential and congressional levels. That is as far as it goes. Voting “all blue” means casting aside worthy candidates for the Texas Legislature and for countywide offices that in reality shouldn’t even be considered on partisan ballots.

I’m in on the “all blue” initiative … to a point.

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Let the campaign commence

1 Comment

The strangest presidential campaign in my memory has begun in earnest … and the two major-party candidates haven’t even been nominated yet by their respective parties.

President Biden is running for re-election against the nimrod he defeated in 2020. For reasons that I cannot explain or understand, he is running — for the time being — as the underdog in this contest.

I don’t get it. The economy is rocking along. Americans clearly are better off than they were when he took office in January 2021. He campaigned on a pledge to restore our nation’s “soul,” and I believe he has succeeded. He’s got more work to do and in my view he has earned the right to finish the job.

But, oh my … this campaign is as weird as any I have seen in all my years watching and, in some cases, covering these events. In fact, it’s the weirdest campaign I can remember.

The Republican nominee-in-waiting is cozying up to dictators. He calls the Hungarian thug/despot a “strong leader” and sounds as if he wants to govern the United States the way his good pal governs Hungary. Oh, my God in heaven. Please … no!

He threatens to dismantle NATO, all but pledges to look the other way while Russian thug Vladimir Putin “does whatever the hell he wants” by attacking a NATO ally while he prosecutes the war in Ukraine.

All of that and more run totally counter to American ideals. Yet the dipsh** continues to lead in public opinion polling.

Are we that stupid, that ignorant, that cynical as a nation to let this guy have his way? May we all come to our senses between now and Nov. 5, when Election Day arrives.

national news, political news

How is this race even close?

2 Comments

I admit that I am slow on the uptake at times, particularly when it comes to certain political trends.

The state of the current presidential campaign is my latest example.

I will go to my grave more than likely wondering how in the name of God Almighty that President Joe Biden finds himself fighting for his political life against the likely Republican nominee.

The GOP nimrod pledged to craft an infrastructure plan. He didn’t. He pledged to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. He didn’t do that either. He said he would declare war on the COVID pandemic and fight like hell against it. Oh, man, he failed miserably.

Biden succeeded him in 2021 and got Congress to pass an infrastructure bill and then defeated the pandemic. Yeah, the border crisis has worsened, but he’s redoubling his efforts there.

The economy is rockin ‘n rollin’ and Joe Biden can take some credit for that.

It should be a runaway. Biden should be facing the prospect of a landslide victory in November. He likely won’t get one.

The former Liar in Chief figures to make it a close race. How in the world a twice-impeached and multiple indicted candidate is hanging in there is beyond my capacity to understand.

national news, political news

GOP about to go ’round the bend

What passes for a once-great American political party tonight appears ready to ’round the ol’ bend, from traditional conservatism to something few of us recognize.

A former POTUS who was impeached twice by the U.S. House and now stands indicted in four courts — two state and two federal — of high crimes is likely to win enough delegates to seal his nomination to the presidency in 2024.

God help us all!

I have refused to mention this clown’s name on this blog. My pledge to avoid mentioning it remains strong. I am deeply troubled that the party he claims to represent no longer appears to care about a politician’s character. Indeed, the fellow who’s likely to be nominated in 2024 doesn’t have any character; he lacks morals; he lacks compassion; he lacks grace.

He is unfit for public office.

However, he is poised to claim the nomination of a party he has co-opted and hijacked.

I cannot even fathom what many of the great Republicans of the past would think of what has become of their party.

local news, political news

End of ads looms … hooray!

I can state with a fair amount of confidence that the No. 1 reason I look forward to Primary Election Day 2024 is the cessation of the endless stream of political ads on TV.

Oh, brother. Spare me. Please!

They have been non-stop, repetitive, boring and only semi-truthful as far as I can determine.

The Republican Party primary is getting most of the attention, given the effort put forth by Texas Attorney General  Ken Paxton to defeat state legislators who favored his impeachment this past year.

And the next time I hear the words “true conservative” when describing these GOP candidates, I am likely to, well … aww hell, I don’t know. I might just curse out loud.

Liberals are called conservative and vice versa. This is just on the GOP side. Who do I believe? I don’t know. Nor do I care. That’s ignorance and apathy all rolled up into one Texas voter.

I am casting my ballot tomorrow morning. First thing. Going to the polling place in Princeton, where I am likely to run into a horde of campaign workers standing outside the designated wall of separation from the polling station.

I’ll just breeze on past ’em and cast my ballot.

Then I’ll get to wait for the next go-round in TV ads. For now, I am getting a breather. Not a day — or a moment — too soon.

media news, national news, political news

Heartened by media performance

The so-called “mainstream media” are doing the job for which their practitioners signed on as they cover the campaign of the idiot who wants to return to the Oval Office.

I believe they have learned from the mistakes they made when they “covered” his initial campaign president starting with his announcement at the NYC tower that bears his name (for now!).

The media chose to essentially give him a pass on the lies that poured out of his mouth. They gave him space in newspapers and airtime on TV and radio, letting him say things about other politicians, immigrants, war heroes and the dispossessed without challenging the veracity of the claims he made.

Not so in this election cycle, or to some degree the 2020 election cycle when he sought to be re-elected as POTUS.

The four years of the moron’s time as president taught many in the media a bitter lesson, which was that it was duty-bound to call him a “liar” when they detected an untruth spilling out of his overfed pie hole. Only a few commentators, I recall at the time, had the fortitude to call him what he was, is and always will be: a liar.

The media now have the court system to buttress what many of us known all along. A New York court has determined, for instance, that The Former Guy lied to bankers about his wealth to obtain favorable loans. He overstated his self-proclaimed empire, he got caught doing it and has been adjudicated to be a bald-faced liar in a court of law.

Of course, we have The Big Lie, which the former Moron in Chief has used to suggest that the 2020 election was rigged against him. I’ve lost count of the number of court decisions that have declared those allegations to be false. He keeps fomenting The Big Lie and his cult followers continue to buy into it.

Moreover, the media now are reporting the lies up front and with all due vigor and professionalism. They didn’t do so when he first entered the political arena in the summer of 2015.

I am grateful that my former colleagues are doing their jobs now. May they continue to keep us informed … as they must.