Tag Archives: SOTU

Donald Trump, national news

Stage set for midterm wipeout

Donald J. Trump could have followed the path forged by every one of the men who preceded him in the office he occupies.

He could have reached out to Democrats and said, “I pledge to work with you to cure what ails us.” Well … he didn’t do that when he stood in front of a partially filled House of Reps chamber to deliver the State of the Union speech that has been widely panned.

Instead, he called Democrats names for their refusal to attend the speech. He accused them of inflating the cost of food, of following an “open border” policy pushed by former President Biden, of putting Americans in danger.

The SOTU didn’t go well for Trump. Polling data suggests that Americans saw straight through what he was doing, which was he talked to his MAGA base, seeking to rally the shrinking core of fervent Trumpkins to get out and vote.

I watched about half of Trump’s speech. I didn’t see the staredown he had with U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona or when he introduced all the celebrities who attended the speech. I understand Democrats joined their GOP colleagues in applauding the U.S. men’s hockey team fresh from winning Olympic gold in Milan, Italy; the bipartisan ovation was a nice touch to be sure.

Trump, though, has set the table for a GOP rout when the midterm election comes around in November. I have no clue how many congressional seats the Democrats will gain. I am going to hope for all my worth that the Constitution will stand strong against Trump’s all but admitted attempt to rig the election.

I believe we are now witnessing the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the democracy the rest of us cherish.

Donald Trump, national news

Our Union is broken

Donald Trump is going to lie about the State of the Union in a little while, so I thought I would get ahead of him and tell what I believe to be the truth about our national condition.

The State of our Union needs triage. It needs attention to repair the damage that Trump and his goons have delivered to the nation we all love. I cannot wait for what I know will be a cascade of untrue assertions. He will declare the economy is the strongest in human history, that our military is locked and loaded and ready to go to war, that Americans love him and his policies, that the border is secure and his get-tough immigration policies are working.

The Union is strong, he will tell us. It isn’t. Not at this moment in history.

I will declare that the Union can be repaired. It can be stitched together into the kind of government our founders wanted when they created the Constitution in 1789.

The rebuilding will take patience and time, as we will learn in real time that a structure can be dismantled far more quickly than it can be rebuilt. I am going to stand by my faith in the court system the founders created.

Trump has surrounded himself with a cadre of yes men and women. We have watched them lie just like the guy to whom they are faithful. Polling data suggest that Americans across the board — Republican, Democrat and independent — have had their fill of the lying. Therein might be our way out of this slop. The midterm election in November can deliver us from the evil of Trump, who has no working majority in Congress.

I will offer a word of advice to those who choose to listen to Trump deliver his SOTU speech: Don’t believe a single statement that flies out of his mouth.

local news, national news, political news

GOP pissants reveal their ‘character’

2 Comments

Let me be clear that I was disappointed, but not the least bit surprised, at the behavior demonstrated by the MAGA chorus of what passes for a once-great political party last night at President Biden’s State of the Union speech.

They showered the president with catcalls and jeers for parts of his speech, showing the world what kind of classlessness comprises the Republican side of the congressional aisle.

My instinct for fairness compels me to point out something before I return to my point: Democrats have on occasion done the same thing when a Republican president has delivered an important speech on the state of our great nation. We also had a House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, tear up her hard-copy text of an SOTU speech delivered by President Biden’s immediate predecessor. That was a poor look, too, to be sure.

I want to remind readers of this blog, though, of an important point.

It is that exactly two people — the president and vice president — hold their office because of votes cast by an entire nation. Congress comprises 535 individuals who are elected either by voters in their states or in congressional districts carved out by legislatures.

Just two people, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have the standing to demand respect and decorum from their audience to whom they are speaking.

Joe Biden didn’t get it from the likes of, say, the MAGA loudmouth from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also showed great disrespect for the rules of the House by wearing a MAGA ballcap on her pointed head. The idea that House Speaker Mike Johnson would allow such a thing to occur is disgraceful on its face; no headgear is allowed in the House chamber, period.

Oh, wait! Had he scolded MTG for breaking the rules, she likely would file a petition to have him removed. Therein lies the real story behind who’s running the show in the House … and it damn sure isn’t the speaker.

Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech from the podium. It resonated with this North Texas blogger. Welcome to the fight, Mr. President.

national news, political news

No mention of ex-POTUS’s name

2 Comments

Well, I’ll be deep-fried and fricasseed. I was certain President Biden would pepper his State of the Union speech with the name of the fellow he succeeded as president.

He didn’t.

Biden didn’t mention his name not one single time!

I had prepared to swill ouzo from a flask tonight at every mention of the former Moron in Chief’s name.

Hah! I can save it for another time.

Still, my first reaction to President Biden’s speech is quite positive. He came to the joint congressional session prepared to wage political war. He didn’t disappoint.

local news, media news, national news, political news

No need to ID this guy by name

3 Comments

Everyone on Earth now likely knows the name of the next Republican Party presidential nominee, as he has captured the party nomination for the past three election cycles.

Thus, you won’t need to read his name on High Plains Blogger. I made a command decision some weeks ago to boycott the idiot’s name, to keep it off my blog posts … to the extent that I can.

There might be an occasion where I quote another politician who has to use his name. I am going to seek ways to write around it.

Why do this? It’s purely selfish. I am sick and fu**ing tired of seeing his name in print and hearing his name mentioned on broadcast media. The very sound of his name makes me feel like puking.

The sight of his overfed, over made-up face causes the same sort of revulsion.

I am wondering whether I should invoke a private drinking game tonight as President Biden delivers his State of the Union speech. Every time the president mentions his 2024 general election foe by name, I am thinking about taking a swig from a small bottle of ouzo I received the other day from a friend of mine.

If I do, I am likely to be wasted by the end of the evening.

President Biden clearly is preparing for a rematch against the former moron in chief he defeated in 2020. He mentions his name liberally whenever he speaks these days in public. That’s fine. It’s good to remind voters specifically who drove the economy into the tank with his feckless, reckless and careless response to the COVID crisis.

That’s a topic for another day.

Meantime, I will watch our president declare that the health of our union is strong and is getting stronger. I just hope my flask of ouzo will last the entire speech.

Joe Biden, national news

Raucous SOTU on tap?

President Biden … you are about to receive some more unsolicited advice from little ol’ me, one of your many supporters who wants to see you re-elected in November.

House Speaker Mike Johnson invited you to speak to a joint congressional session about the State of the Union. I am delighted you accepted the March 7 speaking engagement.

Be prepared, sir, to be heckled, harangued and harassed by a handful of MAGA morons sitting on the Republican side of the House chamber. You have a marvelous message to deliver. The state of our Union is strong. I expect that declaration to come with force during your speech.

It won’t matter to the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Lauren (The Carpetbagger) Boebert, Sens. Ted (the Cruz Missile) Cruz or John (no, not that …) Kennedy.

They will hoot, holler and hiss as you extol the virtues of your term in office.

The challenge, Mr. President, will be in how you deal with it in the moment. One of your predecessors, President Obama, had a masterful sense of timing as he swatted away such idiocy arising from the GOP side of the chamber. Some advice? Why not call the man you call your “brother” and ask him for a tip on how to handle such juvenile behavior. Hey, no one needs to know you made the call.

Use your personal cell phone. Slip him a text message. He’ll call back, right?

Yes, this speech will be seen through a political lens. You know that, as you have sat through many other such SOTUs as senator and vice president.

As you declare the strength of our Union, though, it is imperative that you deal forthrightly with some of the issues that do plague this great nation. You know what I am talking about: the southern border crisis stands out; a solution to that difficult matter can come from you and the SOTU is an ideal forum to offer it. Wars in Israel and Ukraine also are deep concern for your fellow Americans. We need some glimmer of an “end game” strategy and again, the SOTU can provide the venue for it.

I am delighted with the state of our economy and you need  to remind Americans that the recession the “experts” predicted hasn’t come … and isn’t likely to come.

And, finally, you need to frame this upcoming campaign as a battle to retain our cherished democracy and resist the rants of those who want to turn the presidency into an autocracy.

I am with you, Mr. President.

As for the delinquents in the crowd who will toss decorum into the dumper as you stand before the nation, you’ll know how to handle them, too.

Joe Biden

Biden flexes his muscles

An 80-year-old president cannot possibly claim to have muscles as supple as they once were, but last night Joe Biden showed his opposition that he possesses plenty of fight as he prepares for the next phase of the presidency.

That involves what is lining up to be a spirited campaign for re-election.

The venue was a joint congressional session and the president’s annual State of the Union speech. The MAGA cult that comprises a good portion of the Republican caucus in the House decided to heckle the president at some curious and, frankly, dubious points. Such as when he talked about saving Medicare and Social Security.

He took ’em on in the moment. Frankly, we witnessed a side of the president I didn’t believe existed.

He was brilliant! He played the GOP fire-breathers like a cheap fiddle. Along the way he has set the stage for a 2024 presidential campaign that is going to be — at least for this partisan — fun to watch.

To be sure, the right-wing propagandists will portray the speech as nothing more than game-playing. They trotted out Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to deliver the GOP response. Instead of offering policy alternatives, she leveled attack after attack on the “woke mob,” against “left-wing Democrats” and otherwise painted a grim portrait of a nation in decline.

Good grief! The state of our Union is as strong as it ever has been!

That all said, I want to be among the many commentators to applaud President Joe Biden for taking the fight straight to the opposition. He showed me that he has plenty left to offer the world’s greatest nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Idiot doc pops off

My many friends in the Texas Panhandle are represented in Congress by a man I only can describe as an idiot. Yes. His idiocy is on display multiple times daily via his Twitter account.

Here is what Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo said after President Biden delivered his initial State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Biden’s “State of Confusion” is EMBARRASSING! He’s SLURRING his words! RT if you miss the days when the White House wasn’t an assisted living facility

This is the moron who offers diagnosis of Joe Biden’s mental acuity from afar.

I now want to remind this doofus — aka Ronny Jackson — of something about President Biden.

Joe Biden suffered from a debilitating stutter when he was a boy. He worked hard to cure himself of the condition. I can tell Jackson — who once served as a presidential physician to Barack Obama and Donald Trump — that one never really exterminates the condition. I speak from experience. I stuttered badly (at times) when I was a boy. I have powered through most of it.

For Ronny Jackson to offer this moronic observation about the president reveals several things about him. One is his ignorance. Another is his lack of compassion. Yet another is his crassness.

Any physician with a hint of ethical understanding never would say such a thing about a fellow human being.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news

GOP loon disgraces herself

As much as I had hoped there wouldn’t be a display of disrespect of the president during his State of the Union speech, my hope was dashed about two-thirds of the way through President Biden’s speech to a joint congressional session Tuesday night.

Rep. Lauren Boebert demonstrated the lowest of the low points of where the modern GOP has sunk in recent years.

The president was speaking about his late son’s exposure to dangerous chemicals while serving in the Army during the Iraq War and was about to speculate as to whether Major Beau Biden’s exposure brought on the cancer that killed him; then Boebert — along with her QAnon colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene — decided to yell an epithet from the chamber. Boebert said something about Joe Biden being responsible for the deaths of 13 service personnel during the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That moment surely will go down in infamy. Boebert’s outburst drew boos even from her fellow Republican lawmakers.

She disgraced the office she occupies, disrespected the president and the commander in chief and showed the entire world that she lacks the class, grace and decorum to vote on laws that affect every single American.

I always have believed we are better than to send morons to Congress such as Lauren Boebert. I was wrong. I am not a constituent of hers, given that I do not live in the congressional district she was elected to represent. I am, however, a proud American patriot who obeys the laws on which she votes, which gives me standing to declare that I despise Lauren Boebert and everything she believes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden nails the SOTU

I will not apologize to anyone about my partisan leaning; I merely will acknowledge what should be clear to anyone who reads this blog, which is that I support President Joe Biden’s agenda as he seeks to bring the nation back from the mess he inherited when he took office in January 2021.

Tonight, Joe Biden declared after ticking off a number of bipartisan agenda items that should receive universal support from Congress, that the “state of our Union is strong” because of Americans who stood against the ravages of deadly illness and are standing tall against the desires of a desperate foreign despot.

President Biden isn’t known as a sparkling orator, but tonight — in my view — he might have reset the office he occupies.

He appealed to Republicans sitting in front of him when he hailed the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invaders; when he spoke to assuring better help from our government to American veterans; when he declared that our lives will no longer be dictated by our response to a pandemic.

He laid all of this out in an hour-long State of the Union speech and then delivered what I expected would be the punch line, that our Union is “strong.” It remains strong despite our challenges, despite the crises we are battling.

I was delighted that he spoke to our better angels and chose to steer clear of the political divisions of which we all are familiar. No mention of the 1/6 insurrection, no mention of The Big Lie. If I were a GOP congressional leader, I would congratulate and thank the president for staying on the high road. But … that’s just me.

To be clear, it needs to be said that GOP politicians sat on their hands when the president spoke about tax policy, about infrastructure improvement. I guess you can’t win ’em over on everything.

Still, my support for President Biden is stronger than ever tonight after watching him take command of the world stage and deliver in the most forceful language possible a clear warning to the Russian aggressors that they will pay dearly for their act of violence in Europe.

Accordingly, I concur with the president that the “State of our Union is strong.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com