national security

Iran posed ‘no threat to U.S.,’ says top aide

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This might be the least surprising news event of the past six months, but it still is worth a closer look.

The head of the U.S. counterterrorism effort, Joe Kent, has quit his job, saying that Iran — which U.S. and Israeli warplanes have been pummeling with airstrikes — posed no imminent threat to the United States.

According to Kent, an acknowledged expert on terrorism, Trump went to war for no reason. Yep. No reason. We’ve lost more than a dozen service personnel because of a made-up pretext that Trump concocted to show off his macho nerve.

Never mind that when he was of the age to serve during an earlier war, the young Donald Trump got a doctor to say he suffered bone spurs. He dodged the draft in a shameless afront to the nation’s calling him to duty. Those of us who did answer that call in the 1960s cannot forgive the rich kid using his connections to avoid military service.

But … I digress.

The issue today is the counterterrorism expert telling the world that we have gone to war against a nation that poses no imminent threat to the United States. Trump, again not surprisingly, dismissed the man who has resigned. Never mind that he chose him to perform the duty of advising the president on ways to combat terrorism.

This looks for all the world like one more example of the slap-dash decision making process that has become the two Trump administrations’ modus operandi. What’s worse is that the POTUS has no concern about the lives he jeopardizes while ignoring the details that go into decisions that put young Americans in harm’s way.

medical news

Shrill GOP voice has gone quiet … what gives?

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One of Congress’s loudest and shrillest voices has gone strangely quiet since about the time Donald Trump took his oath of office in January 2025 … and I’m trying to figure out why the silence.

Rep. Ronnie Jackson, R-Amarillo, made a whole lot of noise during the term that President Biden served in the White House. Jackson, who once served as White House physician, could be heard constantly yammering and bellowing about President Biden’s mental acuity. The former doctor never saw any of Biden’s medical charts, but all but declared himself an expert on determining whether the president’s butter had slipped off its noodle.

Jackson, in my view, made a complete ass of himself during the Biden administration.

Now, though, a Republican (in name only) has moved back into the White House. Trump’s ramblings have become wildly incoherent. The individual cannot string two sentences together that seem connected or make a tangible thought.

I won’t venture a personal guess on whether I believe Trump’s train has left the station. It does puzzle me in the extreme that a politician who once was trained to be a medical doctor can suddenly become discreet when in the recent past he was shooting off his mouth about the conduct of a politician with whom he has profound differences.

I suppose that was at the heart of his constant bellowing about the former president’s mental health.

The current POTUS? He exhibits plenty of grist for the likes of Ronnie Jackson and others to comment. Trump has gone to war with Iran without explaining anything to the public about why he has chosen to make this world demonstrably less safe. He can find money to spend on the war but cannot find the dough to pay for needed domestic programs that feed hungry children and provide health insurance to millions of families.

The incumbent POTUS isn’t behaving like a man who knows what the hell he’s doing. Ol’ Ronnie Jackson, though, is standing with him. Silently, while he leads this nation into oblivion.

medical news

Don’t ‘try’ … just do it!

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Forty-six years ago I made a command decision that freed me from the enslavement of a nasty habit and then changed my entire outlook on how I should treat future decisions. It changed my life.

Until Feb. 2, 1980, I smoked two packs of cigarettes each day. I liked smoking. I enjoyed lighting up a smoke and taking deep drags on it. Yes, I knew all about the surgeon general’s warning printed on the side of every pack I opened. I didn’t care. I was a young man and I must have thought I was invincible.

Then on that fateful day, I made a decision that has transformed me into a bona fide militant. I had slight cold and an annoying cough. I lit up a cigarette, took a drag … and damn near choked on it!

In that moment, I snuffed out the butt, crumpled up the pack from which I took it, tossed the pack of smokes into the trash. I never turned back.

My wife had been hassling me about the cough. She told me I should quit. I didn’t heed her wisdom. Until that fateful moment! I realized right then that Kathy Anne was a lot smarter than I am and I surrendered to the belief I should have listened to her long ago.

I was 30 years old at the time. I had been smoking since I was 15. So, for half my life I had been poisoning my lungs with cancer-causing agents.

The life lesson I learned from all this? It was to never postpone any decision that awaited! If I am going to quit a nasty habit, I vowed never to wait until next week, or the end of the day or until I was done doing what I intended to quit doing.

I have scolded many friends in the 46 years since that moment about the wisdom of my decision. I have told them if they’re going to quit smoking that they had to do it right then. Right there. No delay. Just quit. Period … full stop.

Of course, I never anticipated back in 1980 that smoking cigarettes could be such an expensive and nasty habit. I must be the master of impeccable timing.

national news

How did we ever make this mistake?

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This much is certain, which is that every one of us is headed to the same place … some version of the Great Beyond. None of us gets out of here alive.

What is far from certain, I am afraid to conjecture, is trying to determine before they throw dirt on my face how in the world Americans managed to elect a certifiable dimwit to the highest office in the land. Not once, but twice!

The imbecile took office in January 2017 and immediately declared a ban on Muslims entering the Land of Opportunity. He never accepted that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and then launched a violent insurrection to stop the peaceful transition of power.

Then he got elected again and on the first day of his second term, in January 2025, the moron pardoned every one of the violent traitors who took part in the assault on the federal government. He has surrounded himself with nincompoops, imbeciles, unfit individuals and called them the “best people” he could find to run the executive branch of government.

All the while, the self-described “king of debt” has piled trillions of dollars onto the mountain of red ink that towers over the federal budget. He gives tax cuts to the mega rich, takes money away that pays for health insurance for millions of others, he threatens the very alliances that keep us safe from the bad guys of the world.

And then? He gets caught in a scandal involving the pedophile and sex trafficker who hanged himself in a jail cell.

We once sought to elect the very best among us to the nation’s highest office. We have elected the most corrupt, immoral and despicable among us.

I realize I am walking across well-traveled ground. Retirement gives me time to allow my mind to wander a bit. I have granted my mind some idle time today. So, I thought I would share once this goofy notion that we all are responsible at some level for the hideous government we have produced.

national news, political news

Time for some ideas, Gov. Newsom

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It pains me a bit to say this, but here goes: California Gov. Gavin Newsom is beginning to bore me … as in bore me enough to ignore what he’s saying.

Why? Well, for one thing it is quite obvious the man wants to run for president of the United States in 2028. Everywhere you turn, and he turns, he’s speaking into a microphone. His message is always the same: Donald Trump is corrupt to the core; his family has earned billions from business ventures made possible by Trump’s position; he runs the “most corrupt” administration human history.

Blah, blah, blah … I’ve heard it already, governor. I know Trump is a crook. I know he is unfit for public office. Hell, I’ve been saying since before he announced his candidacy the first time.

Democrats are likely to field a huge slate of candidates for the 2028 party primary season. So will the Republican Party, given that the incumbent is barred from running again.

I do like Gov. Newsom. However, if he’s going to run for president, he will need to lay out an agenda he intends to follow. I believe it’s time to see and hear it now. There is no need to hear from any of these pretenders what millions of Americans already know … that Donald Trump has been a disaster as president.

Dispense with telling us the obvious. How are Gov. Newsom and the others planning to repair and restore our democracy?

media news, national news

Trump’s words have zero value

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Once, long ago when I was a much younger man, I used to hang on the president of the United States’ every word. When he spoke them, I just knew he was telling me at least his version of the truth.

Was he shading the truth a little to make himself sound better and feel better? Oh, probably. It didn’t matter as long as the fundementals of his statement were based in fact.

The current president? The guy we’ve got in power for the next three years? I have turned 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

I believe nothing that comes from Donald Trump’s overfed pie hole. Zero. Nothing he says means anything to me at this stage of his time in office or in my life as an American patriot.

Please understand that I take no joy in harboring this cynical view. I am not a cynic by nature, unlike some of my former journalism colleagues who actually used to boast about their cynicism. A cynical approach to covering the news or commenting on it is as unhealthy as being gullible enough to believe every single word that comes from a politician.

The current White House occupant, however, has filled even me with cynicism that I find uncomfortable. How can that be? His lying over any issue imaginable — from the epic to the trivial — has become the stuff of legend. The Washington Post counted something like 30,000 instances of lying during Trump’s first term in office from January 2027 until January 2021. No telling how many more thousands of lies he has told just in the first year of his second term.

I will stipulate one more time that I do revere the office of president. It is noble, grand and powerful. Donald Trump has done all he can do to diminish the office in my own mind’s standing. He’s done so by lying whenever he has something to say.

national news

Boycott still standing

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I am feeling the need to offer readers of High Plains Blogger a brief update on one of the boycotts I announced the time Donald Trump became POTUS in January 2017.

Furthermore, I should acknowledge that the boycott has seen some strain and I have been tempted to forgo it when I saw him acting (more or less) presidential.

The boycott was to never attach the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name. I don’t consider him to be my president. Indeed, he acts as though he doesn’t give a Texas ruby red damn about me, my politics, my beliefs. Indeed, he seems to govern as if the only the people who matter to him are those who voted for him.

I ain’t one of them.

I am not alone in that view. I heard a U.S. senator grilling a Trump Cabinet official and he referred to Trump to the official as “your president.” There you have it. I am not the only American patriot who believes Trump doesn’t care to be president for all Americans.

There have been times when I have agreed with Trump. Those times occasionally have caused me to rethink for just a fleeting moment whether I should maintain that boycott. The moment flashes before me and then disappears, usually when Trump says something so ridiculously unpresidential … which he does with flair and panache.

I have begun watching TV news, but only sparingly. It’s usually during prime time. During the day? Nope. TV stays off most days.

I don’t like refusing to refer to Donald Trump with the title to which he was elected. My conscience tugs hard at me when I start to teeter. My best guess is that the boycott will stay put until the day Trump heads for the door from the White House for the final time.

national news

Listen to your predecessors, Donald!

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Barack H. Obama and Joseph R. Biden have been laying waste to Donald Trump’s performance in the office they once held … and with ample reason.

They both left legacies worth cherishing and emulating. Trump has called them two of the worst presidents in U.S. history. I beg to differ. I consider them both two of the best men to serve as commander in chief and head of state.

Obama has been particularly eloquent in his assessment of Trump. He chastises the POTUS for feigning toughness by being “rude to people” and denigrating others. A third Democratic former president, Bill Clinton, has been a bit quieter than his successors. Clinton did speak about some of the subjects he covered in a closed-door congressional committee hearing. It is clear that Clinton thinks next to nothing about the mess that Donald Trump has concocted.

The fourth living ex-president, George W. Bush, has been relatively quiet. He once told a TV talk show host, Ellen Degeneres, that he wouldn’t “be chirping” his criticism of presidents who follow him. He said that presidents hear enough criticism during the normal flow of business during the work week. He said a president needs to be strong to lead this massive, diverse and sophisticated nation. Criticism only weakens that person.

In a way, I kind of prefer the George Bush method. Sure, he can think ill thoughts of Trump. He needs not express those thoughts out loud. It’s always been understood that presidents walk away not just from the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They also turn their back on the debates that rage on.

Those who speak out, though, have wisdom to back them up. If only Trump would listen and heed them.

military news

Talk to us, Mr. POTUS

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Presidents of the United States have a number of unwritten rules they are expected to follow, even though they aren’t inscribed anywhere.

They serve as national comforters, consolers, cheerleaders. They also are required — in a manner of speaking — to explain complicated policy decisions to the people they are elected to serve.

How does Donald J. Trump do on any of those examples? He’s not worth a crap at any of them! I want to focus briefly on the final example.

Trump needs to explain to the American public, his bosses, why he has sent young Americans into battle against Iran. We’ve lost about seven young people already. They were killed in the first days of this air campaign. Trump did receive some of them when their remains were returned to Dover, Del. He hasn’t offered a reason why they died.

Trump has yet to formulate a policy that makes sense. He also hasn’t taken the time to explain his action to an American public that clearly lacks the stomach for another endless war, the kind of conflict Trump pledged he never would enter were he elected in 2024; that pledge helped him secure the victory.

He has tossed that promise into the shitter. He needs to tell us what the hell he’s doing, why he’s doing it and what he expects the nation will gain from it.

A national TV speech would be well worth the time and effort. Mr. POTUS, I and others are waiting for some answers.

national news

Trump’s damage will last longer than the POTUS

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Donald Trump’s time in the Oval Office has an end date, and I am grateful for that deadline.

However, the damage Trump has done — and is doing — is likely to last longer than his time in office. That consequence saddens me to no end. The damage is being done to the public perception of our electoral process.

He has been hammering at the credibility of that process since he lost his re-election bid during the 2020 election. Joe Biden beat his sorry behind but Trump never accepted the beating he took. His constant yammering about electoral credibility has sown plenty of doubt among too many Americans.

I believe none of the nonsense that Trump has fomented since 2020. Too many state legislatures, though, are controlled by Republicans and they have acted to make voting an arduous task for many citizens. They call it “voter suppression” and it appears to be working.

I hear from friends and aquaintances in North Texas about the doubt they say lingers over the election process. I have heard too many of them say something like “if it counts” when describing the act of voting. My answer always is, “Yes … it counts!”

The lasting damage to the public’s perception of our cherished voting process is troubling in the extreme and it serves as a damning testament to the harm committed to our public service by an imbecile who has no understanding or appreciation of the work done to further our democratic process.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience