Tag Archives: Donald Trump

media news

No taking it back … Donald

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Social media can be a blessing, but they also can be a burden … a curse if you will, given the immediacy of the message delivered.

With that, I want to visit the hideous issue of a social media message that flashed from the White House showing President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as apes. Yes. As apes.

As they say about social media and its immediacy … you cannot unhonk the horn!

Trump or his immediate underlings have blamed a White House staffer for putting the image out there. Pretty damn lame excuse. It speaks graphically to the type of individuals that this White House hires to do the things required of White House staffs. I guess in this case one of those duties is to concoct ghastly images of previous presidents and their spouses, blast them into cyberspace and — I reckon — have a huge laugh over it.

The only Black Republican member of the U.S. Senate, Tim Scott of South Carolina, railed against the image and demanded the White House take it down. The Trump team did so. It does not absolve them of culpability in delivering a hateful message from the very center of the U.S. government.

Donald Trump once promised while running for POTUS in 2016 to surround himself with “the best people.” If this is his example of the “best” this country has to offer … God help us!

Donald Trump, national news

Time to pray … for our leaders and our nation

I am going to enter into a period of prayer … yes, even for an individual I happen to detest with every fiber of my being.

That would be Donald J. Trump.

Why pray? Why now? The first answer is easy. I am a man of faith. I am a baptized Christian and I adhere to the notion that prayer isn’t the “least I can do,” but rather it is the “most I can do.” I don’t proclaim my faith loudly. I merely seek to live it quietly.

It could be argued that Trump is the most immoral, amoral, conscience-lacking man ever to hold the nation’s highest political office. Therefore, one might surmise he doesn’t deserve the prayers of the nation he’s been elected twice to lead. I’ll disagree with that view.

You see, the consequences of praying for Trump could bode well for those who watch him from afar. President George W. Bush famously told his successor, President Barack Obama, that despite their deep political differences that he would pray for the new president’s success. The reason was because prayer could produce results that benefit us all.

It must have worked. The new president enacted policies in 2009 that helped lift the nation out of a deep economic recession.

I will admit I haven’t prayed much for Trump over the course of his time in office. He has angered me beyond all I can grasp. The insults, the lack of dignity, the heartlessness, lack of humanity — all of it — have made me an angry American patriot. I think I have peaked out on my anger quotient.

That means I can now pray for success that the nation can grasp. Is Trump capable of change? Not a chance!

I am going to pray, though, for success. Trump might not deserve it. The rest of us certainly do.

crime news, legal news, local news, national news

Impeachment coming? Sure, bring it!

Let’s assume for a moment that the political smart money is telling us the truth, that the next Congress is going to flip to Democratic control and that the House of Reps is going to launch an impeachment against Donald Trump.

We all have heard that Democrats might gain 30 seats on the Republicans who now control Congress. I can’t say whether the pundits think the 30-seat gain is at the top of their projection, at the bottom … or somewhere in the middle. If Trump continues on his slap-dash course it well could exceed the 30-seat turnover by a significant margin.

Is an impeachment necessary? I will allow my bias to peek through the haze and declare: Damn right it’s necessary! I will offer this caveat: I want Democrats to assure us that they can more than one thing at a time, that they can proceed with impeaching Trump and resume their constitutional role of making laws.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is likely to be elected speaker and he ought to take a page from the book followed in Texas by then-Speaker Pete Laney. The West Texas cotton farmer said he always simply allowed “the will of the House” to have its way. And so it went during the years that Laney served as the Man of the House.

The will of the U.S. House should be allowed to play the hand it is dealt. If most members believe — as I do — that Trump has committed an impeachable offense or three, then it should act. It also should not allow the legislative process to get caught in a political vise that will clamp down around the White House.

We’ve all heard them say that lawmakers can “do more than one thing at a time.” Impeaching a president is serious business. So is legislating.

economic news

Fed boss becomes latest Trump target

Jerome Powell is the new man of the hour, designated victim in Donald Trump’s campaign against those who disagree with him on matters that go way over the pointed head of the president of the United States.

Powell is the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the nation’s central bank that is charged with making fiscal policy based solely on economic evidence and trends. The Justice Department issued subpoenas this week to Powell about remarks he made during testimony before the Senate Banking Committee … except the subpoenas have nothing to do with Powell’s testimony.

Oh, no. They have everything to do with Trump wanting the Fed to reduce interest rates. Powell is pushing back, to which I say, “You go, Mr. Chairman!”

Powell insists that the Fed remain independent and free from political pressure. The Fed was created to be immune from the pressure of the moment. It must act on trends it identifies and helps the board of governors decide when or if to adjust interest rates … up or down!

Trump believes it’s time to reduce interest rates. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Jerome Powell is the fiscal expert here, not Trump, who is nothing more than a tinhorn politician seeking to score points with the hope of staving off what looks like an oncoming wipeout in the midterm election later this year.

Some experienced political hands are suggesting that Trump compiling impeachable offenses at a breathtaking rate. I believe abuse of presidential power fits nicely into what Trump is trying to do with Jerome Powell.

national news

Trump: consquential POTUS

Donald Trump declared almost at the moment he became a politician that he intended to become a “consequential” president of the United States. Nearly one year into this second term, I am going to declare that he has become a president of consequence.

Bear with me as I seek to chronicle some of the consequences of his actions.

  • Trump has added more to the national debt that all of his predecessors combined.
  • The annual budget deficit now numbers in the trillions of dollars.
  • He is the second man to be elected to two non-consecutive terms as president.
  • Trump is the only president to be impeached twice by the U.S. House and, by golly, he is staring at the prospect of a third impeachment — or more — once the next Congress takes office a year from now. That’s all pretty consequential, don’t you think? There’s more.
  • He hired the world’s richest human being to oversee the destruction of several government programs, including USAID, the Affordable Care Act and is threatening to slash Medicare, Medicaid and even Social Security payments.
  • Trump has taken aim at critics who have spoken the plain truth about following orders, ensuring that military personnel only are bound to follow lawful orders. He wants to demote one senator, a retired Navy captain, combat aviator, former astronaut and then subject him to a court martial for speaking that truth.
  • He has threatened to go to war with Venezuela, he wants to seize Greenland from Denmark and has talked openly about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state.
  • And speaking of war, Trump is the first U.S. president to openly switch our alliance from a nation that was attacked by an aggressor state to the aggressor state. You want consquence? Trump’s got it in spades.

I won’t cheer any of these consequential acts. I will acknowledge, though, that Trump has delivered on his stated desire to be a consequential president.

We’ll be talking about Trump long after he’s gone. That’s consequential, too.

Uncategorized

Ohhh … the lack of humanity!

Donald Trump’s lack of humanity, grace and forgiveness are on full display with every eruption of politically inspired violence that erupts in communities across this land of ours.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot a woman to death as she was fleeing a scene in her car. The jury is still out on whether the ICE officer committed a murderous act or whether he acted in self-defense. The video evidence suggests strongly the former.

The woman was the mother of three small children. She was present to protest ICE’s rounding up of residents for possible deportation. Minneapolis has been shaken to its muncipal core.

So, where is Trump? Has he weighed in with a comment expressing any sort of concern for the children of the woman whose death has left them as orphans? He hasn’t even offered a tepid platitude expressing regret over the incident.

One of the unwritten rules that falls on every president is to lend some level of comfort in times of tragedy, or duress, or tumult. Someone who gets shot to death by an agent of the government, it seems to me, is one of those tragic events that requires a president to step up and say something — anything! — that could lend a modicum of comfort to the nation.

He is silent while chief White House aides and at least two Cabinet officials have determined that the ICE officer was defending himself … against a woman who was driving away from him.

The current POTUS didn’t deliver. No, I am not surprised. I am still angered.

media news, national news

Change of heart on pledge

A few years ago — I cannot remember precisely when — I pledged to no longer make a resolution to begin the new year.

Why promise to do something that I didn’t expect to be able to do, or so I thought in the moment. Today I am taking back that pledge and declaring a new year resolution for 2026. I believe I can keep this one alive and functioning. I am pledging to use High Plains Blogger to make life as miserable as possible for Donald J. Trump, his administration of yes men and women and the MAGA crowd that remains loyal (for reasons that escape me) to the pretender in chief. I am acutely aware that my reach is somewhat limited. I don’t have a huge audience that reads my rants. I’ll start by asking those who do read them and who agree with my view that Trump is a threat to this country, that he is unfit for the office he occupies and he must be stopped … well, you can share those thoughts on your social media network of friends and acquaintances. Those of you who read this blog but who continue to support the dipshit in chief, you can react to my rants any way you see fit. It’s your call. I’ll be commenting throughout the year on issues that present themselves. My immediate aim is to flip the U.S. House from Republican to Democrat when the ballots are counted for the midterm election. One more word on this issue. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knock on my door, I’ll have my birth certificate and passport handy to prove that I am an American patriot who has read the Constitution … and who understands the free speech liberty it grants for all citizens of this great country.
economic news, military news, national news

Trump: RINO in chief

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, the American Republican Party stood for principles the party deemed to be hard and fast … not to be trifled with.

Republicans opposed adding to the national debt. They opposed deficit spending each year on the federal budget. The GOP stood firm against “nation-building” wars overseas. Republicans stood with Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in passing the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts of 1964 and 1965. The GOP saw the Soviet Union as a national enemy and committed to the destruction of the tyranny preached in the Kremlin.

Hmmm. Those days are gone. Likely forever. Never to be seen again.

Donald Trump is now what I call the Republican In Name Only in chief. He is leading a party that bears no resemblance to the party of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon.

I am trying to imagine President Reagan allowing the national debt to balloon to trillions of dollars. Or President Lincoln allowing the party to embrace white supremacists. Or President Nixon defending the USSR’s direct descendants, Russia, in disputes involving U.S. intelligence findings.

What we have now in charge in D.C., ladies and gents, is a party that has betrayed all those core values. It’s not just the president. He has GOP members of Congress, who are standing with him.

They all — not just Donald Trump — deserve our everlasting condemnation for the direction they have taken this great country.

International news

Words are failing me

Allow me this brief admission, which is that my meager command of English is failing me as I search for expressions to condemn the actions of the charlatan who sits in the Oval Office.

I am running out of ways to knee-cap Donald Trump’s efforts to disobey international law, to ignore the federal courts and to seize control of a sovereign government because its leader follows policies that Trump abhors.

Get this, kids. Now Trump appears to be ratcheting up the chatter associated with a possible takeover of Greenland, an Arctic island that exists as a territory of Denmark.

Greenland is no speck in the Arctic Ocean. It covers about 836,000 square miles, or about three times as much land mass as Texas. Someone will have to explain to me — in language I can understand — precisely why Trump would want Greenland. It’s covered in ice most of the year. Almost no human being lives there. But Trump seems to suggest he wants it. What the ever-lovin’ hell has POTUS been swilling?

The Danes aren’t going to surrender Greenland. Denmark, just like Venezuela, is a sovereign nation and it has held Greenland for several hundred years.

I cannot grasp whatever reason is rattling around Trump’s vacuous skull about why he wants Greenland. I am going to have to settle on a conclusion that Trump’s delusions of godhood and grandeur need to be reined in … right now!

military news

MAGA loses its original meaning

MAGA is an acronym that’s become a word, kind of like SCUBA, FUBAR, ZIP code and TEA Party … but it has morphed into a new meaning that is getting hammered beyond recognition by the current numbskull in chief.

MAGA means Make America Great Again, as if this nation has lapsed into non-greatness, which it hasn’t.

These days you hear MAGA minions say it means simply to put “America first” over other nations’ interest. What in the world. therefore, is up with the United States sending Army special forces into Caracas to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro? How in the world is that putting America first? Someone tell me, please.

So, we have Maduro and his wife in custody. They have been indicted on drug charges. They’ll stand trial. Any bets on whether they get convicted?

Donald Trump has violated international law by seizing a sovereign head of state and then vowing to “run” a sovereign nation until a reasonable transition can occur. The irony of the transition statement is too rich to ignore, given what he attemped to do on Jan. 6, 2021 by inciting the frontal attack on Congress as it sought to certify the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election … which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Trump’s invasion of Venezuela, an effort to seize and sell oil from that nation’s rich reserves, is an affront to this nation. He hasn’t made America great in any form or fashion. He has committed this nation possibly to the kind of “endless war” he said he wanted to end.

When in this world is Congress to awaken to what so many of us are witnessing in real time, which is the fundamental usurping of congressional authority to declare war?