Shut up, Donald, about that bribe

September 13, 2026 kanelis2012

Donald Trump’s offer of a $5,000 “dividend” to every living U.S. citizen he would pay if the midterm election turns out the way he wants it is nothing more than a bribe … so that’s what I will call it from this moment forward.

Accordingly, I just wish Donald would cease offering the bribe by yammering through his overfed pie hole.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the bribe requires a congressional vote to become legal. It won’t ever get that far.

A bribe is what we all know it to be. It is a payment to someone who does someone else a favor. Trump’s poll numbers are taking faster than an ocean liner that hits an iceberg. Donald knows it, even if he doesn’t acknowledge it. The bribe is meant to give those who reside in MAGA Land a glimmer of hope that Donald can actually deliver the goods. He cannot.

There once was a day when real Republican conservatives railed at the thought of a budget deficit. Remember when Ronald Reagan chided President Carter during the 1980 presidential campaign for running the government on a deficit that totaled $43 billion? It scored enough political points to carry him to a landslide victory. Trump’s deficits have been running consistently in the trillions of dollars. Sending bribe money out to every American is going to blow an even bigger hole in the deficit and add another $1.4 trillion to the national debt.

Donald Trump is a feckless fool for even suggesting such a thing. He ought to shut his trap.

And concentrate on ending that idiotic war in Iran.

local news, military news, national news

Ready to receive long-awaited thanks

September 10, 2026 kanelis2012

My day today was spent doing something I didn’t think I would do … which was think about a brief trip to the nation’s capital to receive thanks for my service to the nation.

The Honor Flight about which I have written on this blog is at hand. The Honor Flight is the 63rd such venture from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to Washington, D.C. We depart early tomorrow from Love Field. Our plane will carry 45 military veterans and “guardians” assigned to assist with anything under the sun that we might need on our whirlwind visit.

We’re going to hit the ground in a full sprint when we arrive in D.C. I don’t know the precise itinerary, but I am aware it will include the major memorials and monuments along the National Mall. We will see the World War II memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the MLK Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery (including the changing of the guard).

I need to mention the Reflecting Pool, the one that’s been in the news after Donald Trump messed it up by trying to dye the water blue, only to have it turn out green.

I am anxious to see it all and to share some of my not-very-exciting military story with fellow vets.

We’re going to get lots of thank you greetings from strangers, or so I have been told. They will deliver thanks for our service, much of which we didn’t get when we returned home when we were so much younger. The nation was not used to “losing” a war and many Americans blamed soldiers like me for the failed policies we were ordered to carry out. Don’t misunderstand: I didn’t get spit on when I got home, but I did get a wide range of indifference from strangers when I informed them of my then-recent history, which involved a brief tour of duty in Vietnam.

The good folks who arranged this Honor Flight assure us that’s all about to change. I am ready to accept all the love I expect to receive.

military news

What does Hegseth mean?

September 9, 2026 kanelis2012

Let us take a quick peek into the shallow mind of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the nimrod who keeps telling us that Iran has been dealt a blow that renders its armed forces “combat ineffective.”

Recall that Donald Trump recruited Hegseth off the Fox and Friends Weekend couch to lead the Pentagon. Hegseth has zero qualifications to serve as defense secretary. Except for one thing. He is blindly loyal to Trump.

Accordingly, when Trump declares complete victory over Iran in this idiotic war of choice, Hegseth follows the liar in chief straight into the crapper. He bought Trump’s desire to refer to the Pentagon chief as the “war secretary,” and calls his department the “Department of War.” What a bunch of crap!

So, when Hegseth keeps repeating the lie about Iran being rendered defenseless against our bombs and missiles, I am left to wonder: How in the hell do the Iranians keep firing missiles at targets in the Strait of Hormuz? We were told the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes “obliterated” Iran’s military. Isn’t that the case?

While we keep bombing Iran, and they keep firing back at us, the price of oil continues to skyrocket, forcing huge inflationary pressure on the price of gasoline and diesel fuel. Hegseth is silent about all of that, as is the dipshit in chief.

As a veteran who has served in a war zone for my country, I consider Pete Hegseth to be unworthy of any form of respect his office should demand. He is a disgrace.

Uncategorized

If only Trump could see what others see

September 9, 2026 kanelis2012

I am writing this blog post in the wee hours, so I’ll be brief with what I want to get off my chest.

We all have come to accept that Donald J. Trump is an extreme narcissist. He sees himself only in one light, that of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement. After all, he spent his entire adult life aiming to improve his financial wealth.

If only this clown could see himself as others see him. He heaps praise on himself and expects whoever is listening to it to accept it as the truth. Damn! It isn’t!

Every one of his business ventures has ended in failure. The university. The steaks. The booze. The gambling casinos, for God’s sake!

Now that he’s president, he is enacting policies that make him look like a dimwit. The world is laughing its ass off at the POTUS. He doesn’t hear the laughter. He doesn’t take any of the ctiticism seriously.

Dude is now 80 years old. He clearly is on the way out. I just don’t want this guy to inflict any mortal damage to the government he seeks to control.

national news

Do our eyes now turn to Barron?

September 7, 2026 kanelis2012

Barron Trump remains the mystery member of the nation’s premier political family.

I am more than willing to admit that the young man has stirred my curiosity more than just a little bit.

I mention Barron because he now is an adult. He is past the age of majority, which in some circles makes him an open target for all kinds of rhetorical mischief. I will not go there.

I do intend to express some interest in the kind of man he has become, living as he has in the crucible known as the White House.

Barron Trump, born in March 2006, now towers over almost everyone he sees. His father stands 6 foot 3, and Barron appears to be around, oh 6 foot 9 or 10.

Soon enough, probably when Dad leaves office in January 2029, we’ll get to see more of the youngest of Donald’s five kids. Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka all have made their marks on some fashion or another. A second daughter, Tiffany, has obtained her law degree and has remained out of the limelight.

Now we have Barron.

Here’s my hope for the young man. I hope he has learned from the plastering his brothers have gotten because they chose to become political animals, just like Dad. My hope for Barron Trump is that somehow, someway and through some channel that escapes me, he is able to carve out something akin to a normal life.

I suppose there’s always hope that the young man can stumble into a relationship that gives him complete happiness. I realize that’s a difficult order to fill, being the member of a family led by a fraud, a con man, a charlatan … and a loser!

economic news, national news

He’s not my POTUS

September 7, 2026 kanelis2012

Some of you who have read this blog over the span of many years might recall a pledge I made, which was to never insert the word “President” in front of Donald Trump’s name. I have been faithful to that pledge.

Why? Because he’s not my president and that is a feeling I never have experienced with any man who didn’t get my vote for high office. Every single day he is in office, Trump demonstrates he doesn’t give a damn about me, my family or any American who fits our profile.

And that is …

We pay our taxes on time (generally) without complaining, we serve our communities, we have worn the uniform and in many cases have gone to war when ordered, we play by the rules, we worship a holy God.

OK, you get the idea? Trump has many issues on his plate that present existential threats to our way of life. Does he deal with them in public, with the same aggressive nature he spends on trivial matters? Not in the least. Average patriotic Americans like my family members and me insist that he right some of those wrongs. He doesn’t give a damn about any of them.

He once told a reporter that he doesn’t spend any time worrying about the effect the Iran war was having on Americans’ financial condition. Never mind that the price of automobile fuel has doubled since we went to war with Iran, or that the worldwide tariffs he has imposed has spiked the price of damn near everything we buy at the grocery store.

My president would care about those effects on my family and me. Not this one.

He sickens me.

Donald Trump

Trump’s hair is the new ‘thing’? What the … ?

September 6, 2026 kanelis2012

As if there isn’t enough to comment on regarding Donald J. Trump, there now appears to be a new “thing” on which some pundits have become fixated.

It happens to be Donald Trump’s new “do,” the hair on his noggin, the thing that has by itself become the subject of barbs, guffaws and speculation about what it’s covering up.

You want my take on what we’re seeing? I think it looks pretty good. All elements considered …

Let’s face facts, the POTUS isn’t exactly Chippendale/firefighter calendar material. So, he’s got a new “do.” To borrow a quote from President Biden … big fu***** deal!

Some of you might wonder, oh, geez, is the blogger going soft on the Orange Man? Hell no! He is leaving behind a legacy worthy of every bit of scorn imaginable. We have that Iran war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, those destructive tariffs, the dude’s bizarre behavior on the world stage, the East Wing disaster, the Reflecting Pool, Trump’s obsession with gold trimmings and that idiotic notion of slapping his name on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that already carries the name of the only Black enlisted man so honored.

Trump’s hairdo? This is the final thing I likely ever will say about it.

local news, military news

Ready to accept ‘honor’ of grateful nation

September 5, 2026 kanelis2012

Fewer than seven days to go and soon it will be flaps as 44 fellow veterans and I take off from Love Field for an “Honor Flight” designed to thank those who wore the uniform while serving our great land.

Please accept my brutal candor here. It took me some time to consider this a trip worth making. Why is that?

Well, I wasn’t sure a brief sprint through some of our nation’s hallowed memorials and monuments was worth the effort. Time also was a factor. Honor Flights leave in the morning of Day One and return the evening of Day Two.

As time marched on, I kept hearing reports from other veterans who have declared the event one of the highlights of their lives. Hmm, I thought: Well, if it means so much to so many of these veterans, then perhaps there’s more than meets the eye on these honor flights.

The vets who return talk of the immense respect they collect from strangers they encounter while touring the DC Mall memorials. You know, this might be all that it is cracked up to be.

The older veterans on this trip saw service in the Vietnam Era. Many of us actually reported for duty in the war zone. I will exempt myself from in any discussion of combat experience in Vietnam. I was a REMF. The acronym stands for Rear Echelon … you can assemble the rest of what the letters spell out.

And although I didn’t get the “baby killer” epithet or other hostile language, I did receive the cold shoulder from strangers –and, yes, even a few friends — when I mentioned my time in the war zone.

These Honor Flights are an effort to tell us that the nation is sorry for the way it treated us when we got home and to thank all those who wore the uniform that the nation is proud of them.

Six more days of prep — emotional and physical — are on tap for this ol’ geezer. I am looking forward to this whirlwind.

political news

A real prediction, or just hot air?

September 4, 2026 kanelis2012

There are times for sure when you want to believe predictions that come from “experts” who not only claim to know many things, but who have track records to demonstrate to predict the future.

I am not sure about what I have just read regarding what is percolating in the political mind of James Carville.

Carville is a political pistol to be sure. He says Donald Trump is a “soft man” who will be unable to tolerate the shellacking his Republican Party will suffer in the midterm election that’s just around the corner. So … Carville said that Trump will quit the office and hand it over to Vice President J.D. Vance.

Part of me wants to happen. Trump is a fool, a buffoon, a dangerous wanna-dictator who has no business being anywhere near the nuclear codes. Vance … ? He’s another cat altogether.

He’s also a fool, but not quite the buffoon that Trump has shown himself to be. He is able to string sentences together. He makes them sound like they make sense even if they don’t.

According to the Irish Star: Trump simply lacks the strength to face the crushing defeat headed his way, Carville argues: “He’s a soft man.” Concerns have also mounted over Trump’s health, with noticeable signs including drowsiness, swollen ankles, and dark bruises on his hands. Current projections indicate that the Democrats have a 76.9% chance of securing a majority of seats in the House, a number that has climbed consistently in recent months. The president will bear the brunt of his party’s collapse, Carville says: “They’re going to blame [Trump] – the whole culture is going to change. The whole conversation is going to change.”

Vance clearly wants to be elected to the presidency in 2028. I don’t know that factually, but it makes a whole lot of sense for him to position himself as a possible frontrunner. But he’s going to carry a lot of the baggage that Carville and others say will doom Trump to feckless lame-duck status once the dust clears from the midtern election.

Carville once guided Bill Clinton to a decisive victory in 1992. He developed the “war room” where all the key Clinton campaign decisions were made. He goes through life seemingly feeling as if certain things are going to happen. As often as not, they do. That gives this prediction a bit more weight than others might have.

I am just going to sit on my hands and watch Trump as carefully as I can from my distance far from the center of the universe.

And I suppose I can hope that if Democrats get control of both congressional chambers, then an impeachment and probable conviction in a Senate trial would spur Trump to pack it in.

Let’s all get ready to rumble.

High Plains Blogger