local news

Get busy, Princeton

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Princeton, Texas, is hurtling head first into municipal adulthood … but it appears to have little vision of what it wants to become or how it intends to get there.

The city manager and his top assistant quit in December. The manager was on the job for less than two years. Now he’s gone on to pursue “other interests,” which is one way of saying he left without a clear idea of where he will end up.

A long-awaited and much-hyped commercial project on the corner of Beauchamp Boulevard and US Highway 380 has yet to show any signs of life. The city appears to be up to its armpits in litigation over the construction of apartment complexes and a new residential development along Longneck Road.

Ask anyone who lives near Princeton about my city and you get a curious look of befuddlement, amusement and even a bit of sorrow over what residents here are having to endure. City Hall is not a well-oiled, fully functional, machine that runs with all cylinders firing the way they’re supposed to.

My wife and I moved here in February 2019 hoping to be on the cutting edge of a population explosion that is destined to lead the city to greatness. Well, greatness remains a distant dream.

Eugene Escobar defeated Brianna Chacon for the mayor’s seat pledging a more “transparent” government. I think he’s trying. Chacon didn’t deliver much transparency when she engineered the hiring of the city manager who lasted a month short of two years on the job.

I am ready for the city to start showing signs of actual maturity. I am ready for City Hall to act as if the folks who run our local government can extinguish the last flames of confusion and get down to the task of providing services efficently for a city of 40,000 residents (give or take).

A new year has dawned. I welcome 2026. I am going to remain optimistic, but with an abundance of caution.

national news

Year ends in frustration

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I hereby declare that the final post on High Plains Blogger in 2025 will end with my hands thrown into the air accompanied by the sigh of frustration from an American patriot who still cannot grasp what has become of the country he loves more than life itself.

That would be me, of course.

The year that is drawing to a merciful close will give way soon to many new opportunities to correct what has gone so terribly wrong. I await 2026 with undying optimism that we’re going to snap out of it, we’ll come to our senses and we will begin charting the corrective course that will save us all.

Donald John Trump was elected in 2024 to another term as the White House gatekeeper. I am finding it difficult these days even to refer to him as president. I vowed after the 2016 election that I would decline to attach the word “President” directly in front of Trump’s name. I have been faithful to that pledge. I accept your congratulations.

Now that we’re one year into the second term, I cannot even refer to his second victory as a “re-election.” The dude did get his melon thumped in 2020 by President Biden and he debased the office even more by declaring his refusal to accept the result and then incited the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

The individual is a disgrace.

The year was spent hiring incompetent boobs to run multibillion-dollar government agencies. The more I think about it, the more logical it seems that the imbecile in chief would surround himself with agency heads who at some level make the man in charge seem smarter than he is. It really hasn’t worked.

What is the remedy? Midterm election. We’re going to elect the entire and House one-third of the Senate in November 2026. The notion that the House is likely to flip from R to D when the ballots are counted gives me hope that a competent House speaker will be able to steer that congressional chamber back to doing what we expect of it. The House will return to governing!

We also have to consider that a third Trump impeachment may occur. I don’t want that to happen. If it does, I want the House to produce proof that could persuade enough GOP House members that they have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump has violated his oath of loyalty to the Constitution.

The reconstruction of our democratic principles can begin in this new year. I will use this blog to do my tiny part to ensure the project gets completed.

local news

Adapting to custom

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For those of you who have forgotten — and that’s probably all of you — I once declared myself to be a surprisingly adaptable human being, given that I uprooted myself from my home in Oregon in the 1980s to move my family to Texas.

That was in 1984 and by and large we all learned how to change many of our thoughts about our new home and to adapt to many of the customs practiced here. It wasn’t until a young woman joined our family in March 2012 that I truly grasped what one of those customs means to the average Texas family.

Eating black-eyed peas to welcome the new year.

The newest family member married one of my sons. She is a Plano native and has lived in North Texas all her life. She prepares black-eyed peas each new year and persuaded us to join her in eating them to welcome good luck to our family. We have done so since. I am going to do so again this year. I likely will continue doing so for as long as I draw breath.

The good news is that I happen to like black-eyed peas. They make a wonderful soup dish. I suspect I’ll just heat ’em up and consume ’em right off the stove top. The good luck will be sure to follow, right?

This is a big deal for this transplanted Texan. We began our Texas journey in Beaumont, then moved way up yonder to Amarillo and finally settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. My family and I have called Texas home since the spring of 1984. That makes almost 42 years waking up under the Lone Star and beginning a new year.

The state has changed in many ways since we first arrived here. Politically? You bet! Texas used to be reliably Democratic. Now it’s reliably Republican. For that matter, Oregon — where I was born in 1949 — has gone from nominally Republican to hard-core Democratic in about the span of time as Texas’s re-generation. Who knew … ?

I did not grow up in a family that lived with tradition. We didn’t participate in activities based on family history, or state culture, or religion. I guess we lived more or less for the moment. Texas taught my family and me that some traditions are worth keeping alive.

Eating black-eyed peas to ring in the new year is one of them.

Happy New Year … and bon appetit.

media news

Living the editorialist’s dream

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I guess you can date this phenomenon back to around 9/11, the day the terrorists declared war on the United States of America and thrust us into the global war against terrorism.

It fell on the laps of people like me — who was writing editorials and columns and editing the pages on which we would publish them — to seek to provide context, perspective and leadership through the written word.

The phenomenon of the moment took place in this fashion: Hardly a day went by while I was working as a full-time opinion journalist where I didn’t have something on which to say. That’s right. The task I faced almost every morning when I reported for work was to decide what to set aside for a later publication date.

Many of those who have done what I did for a living for nearly 37 years faced the opposite … finding topics on which to comment to fill a gaping hole on the page. Not me, man! 9/11 introduced us to a whole host of terror-related and national security issues that required commentary from the newspaper. This occurred during the time when newspapers actually meant something to the comunities they served.

Writer’s block? Fuhgettaboutit!

I had a brief bout with writer’s block. It’s passed. My A-game has returned. I am grateful.

I now will continue living the dream … a life as a semi-retired blogger who gets to foist his views on the rest of the world.

national news, political news

How did we come to this?

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For as long as I draw breath on this good Earth, I likely never will be able to understand the question that comes to me from my friends around the world.

They ask: What has happened to you Americans? How did you manage to elect Donald Trump twice to the presidency?

I guess my answer to Trump’s first election in 2016 would address the quirkiness of the U.S. electoral system that enables a candidate to be elected despite drawing fewer actual votes than the winner. Hillary Clinton finished that campaign with several million more votes than Trump, who won the election because he collected more than enough Electoral College votes than Clinton.

The second election, though, in 2024, is harder to explain. I mean, the guy was impeached twice by the House in his first term, he was found liable for rape against several women, he has demeaned his foes as “enemies” and the press as the purveyors of “fake news.” He told us he was going to seek revenge on those he said had done him wrong. He never said a word about hiring the world’s richest human being and ordering him to eliminate programs aimed at feeding the needy around the world. The individual has 34 felony counts tacked onto his criminal record.

My friends all tell me they have great respect for Americans. The love this country and those of us who call it home. They are baffled beyond measure at the tolerance of Trump’s petulance by Republican toadies who still stand with this clown.

I am left to admit to them: So am I.

media news

Cure for writer’s block?

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I am suffering at this moment from a mild case of writer’s block. How do I know it? Because I am writing about it … that’s how!

I never heard this tip from the source himself. It came to me via a fellow editorial writer and editor. He’s a dear friend and he told me that Paul Greenberg, the late, great editorial writer who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 writing for the PIne Bluff (Ark.) Commercial, that the “best way to cure writer’s block is to read the Psalms.”

You’re thinking: How does reading Old Testament Scripture cure writer’s block? My answer? Beats the stuffing out of me. I cannot ask Paul now, sadly, because he’s gone to his great reward.

I figure it will pass. I have gotten them before. They fade away eventually. To be honest, the events of 9/11 I thought had all but cured me of writer’s block. That terrible day unleashed a torrent of responses that demanded commentary, which I was doing in September 2001 writing for the Globe-News in Amarillo, Texas.

I know the president provides grist. To be candid, Donald Trump is boring me. The commentary I hear online and on TV also bores me.

I said the other day I was returning to my bash-Trump self. I still intend to do so.

Just not today.

 

political news

Donning the brass knucks … again

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Maybe you have noticed that High Plains Blogger went a little soft on Donald Trump and his gang over the past couple of days.

I did so to honor the birth of Jesus Christ and to enjoy the holiday we commemorate in his honor.

The holiday is passed. I am back to my normal fare that some might refer to as a revival of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s a crock of dookie!

I merely am calling attention to the existential threat Trump poses to the existence of our democratic republic. I figure if I stir up enough concern, there might be a few thousand voices willing to join in the chorus to get this pretender/charlatan/fraud to cease his assault on the rule of law.

I expect to get some blowback from a handful of critics of this blog. They are dyed-in-wool MAGA cultists, although one fellow insists he dislikes the way Trump conducts himself but stands by the message he delivers. Whatever …

We’re about to complete the first year of Trump’s second term in office. Only three more years to go before we show him out of the White House … for keeps!

legal news

Constitution is showing its mettle

All right, boys and girls, this might be wishful thinking on my part, but I damn sure hope it’s for real because it feels like the real thing to me.

I am beginning to believe that our Constitution is beginning to flex its considerable muscle just in time to put the brakes on Donald Trump’s headlong dash toward establishing an autorcracy where the nation’s founders set forth a democratic republic.

The federal judiciary is leading the way, just as the founders sought when they created a three-branch government in which the courts serve as co-equally along side the legislative and executive branches of government.

Trump surely has left us gasping for breath from the moment he took office on Jan. 20. It was his second time around the presidential pea patch. The good news? There will be no third go-round. The Constitution’s 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two elected terms. Period. Full stop.

The courts keep issuing rulings that are giving Trump fits. To which I say, good on ’em! We see even judges nominated for the federal bench by Trump himself issuing decisions that are stripping away legal options bit by bit.

If the president were ever to read the Constitution, he would understand that the founders sought an independent judiciary that is relatively free of political pressure. Yes, Trump has three justices on the Supreme Court who have joined a six-justice conservative super majority. However, they are not following Trump in lockstep over the proverbial cliff.

Thus, the Constitution works … just as President Ford said in the moments after he took office at the end of our “long national nightmare.”

local news, Uncategorized

Following custom this holiday season

Custom reigns supreme in my humble North Texas home, which really doesn’t amount to much, except that it means something to little ol’ me.

It is custom in my home that I stay put the day after Christmas, just as I do the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday is a non-starter in my home. I leave that madness to others to pursue to varying degrees of success.

Same is true for Christmas. The Eve night will be quiet. I might go to to church around midnight. I will make that call later. I will spend the holiday with my sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

I made a pact long ago to not let Christmas stress me out. I was faithful to that pact once again this year. I finished my shopping five whole days early, which is pretty good for me. I have been seen frequenting stores on Christmas Eve looking for that “perfect gift” for my special loved one. I got it done early this year.

The new year awaits. 2026 looks like it’s going to be a good one for me and for those close to me. I’ll just gear up for the festivities.

I’ll follow the customary path into the coming year.

With that … Merry Christmas and let’s prepare for a year full of surprises and dreams come true.

local news

Reflecting on future Christmases

I know what you’re thinking, that we cannot “reflect” on events that haven’t yet occurred, as the term applies to the past.

I’ll make a stab at dispelling that notion.

Soon it will be three years since I experienced the worst day of my life with the passing of my bride after a savage bout with glioblastoma, aka cancer of the brain. I miss Kathy Anne every day. We were married for 51 years and one doesn’t lose a life partner without considerable pain.

Christmas was her favorite holiday. My wife would tear through the house like the proverbial Tasmanian Devil. She would deck the digs with boughs of holly, depictions of Santa and Rudy the Reindeer … along with Nativity Scenes depicting the birth of Jesus Christ, which is the real reason Christians celebrate the holiday. And every year she would tell me, “I am not very good at decorating,” which of course demonstrated a degree of false modesty.

I’ve been looking forward to this holiday. I am not the decorator that my bride was, but my modest North Texas home is full of love not just for the memories we shared, but for the family I will see very soon on Christmas.

We will laugh and carry on. We’ll enjoy the holiday fully. It’s all part of the journey I have undertaken since losing my bride.

I am declaring that my journey is complete. I cannot guarantee that I’ll never shed a tear. Indeed, I tell fellow widowers that they, too, likely will feel a sadness that will sneak up on them. Don’t fight it, I tell them.

I’m done fighting my own feelings. I intend to enjoy this season from this one forward.

Merry Christmas!

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience