Farewell, sis … what a ride!

March 29, 2025 kanelis2012

PORTLAND — I came back to the city my birth — and my sisters’ birth — to bid farewell to the older of my sisters.

Georgianne surrendered to the physical demons that had plagued her for years, succumbing Feb. 24 to complications brought on by COPD. She was 14 months younger than me.

We had two services. One was to celebrate sis’s amazing life. She lived just short of 74 years. Her trip in this life was a wild one, to be sure. She had her issues growing up. Sis got through them and went on to lead a productive life. The other service was at the crypt where her ashes are interred next to Mom and Dad.

Sis never really shook herself completely free of the difficulties that followed her into teenhood and early young adulthood.

However, she was full of love and that love came back to blanket her during the celebrations we had of the life she led. I am grateful for that and I know she is, too.

I will return home late tomorrow to North Texas, where I have established my own life. Perhaps I should say where I am rebuilding my life. Many of you who have read this blog know about the circumstances there. It’s coming along.

This trip to where I came into this world, though, is about Georgianne Duback. She would tell me while seeking a favor from me that “I’ll love you forever.”

Well, sis, know that I truly will love you forever.

national security

Yep, it’s Trump’s party

March 27, 2025 kanelis2012 1 Comment

If you harbored any doubt that Donald J. Trump has hjiacked a once-great political party and molded it into his plaything, look no further than the reaction to the hideous security breach involving the national security adviser and the secretary of defense.

Republicans have been, shall we say, tame in their response to reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz leaked classified battle plans to a reporter for Atlantic Monthly magazine.

Imagine, too, if a Democratic leadership team had done such a thing. What would be the outcry among Republicans? We know what it would be. Republicans would be bellowing “lock ’em up!” just as they did in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was caught using her personal email server while working as U.S. secretary of state.

This time, the relative silence among GOP operatives is deafening and so very telling about the selective outrage among those who now call Donald Trump their master.

national news

Give these residents a break!

March 26, 2025 kanelis2012

I am overwhelmed by the desire to speak out on behalf of a group of U.S. residents who are getting the short shrift in the current kerfuffle over immigration.

They number in the hundreds of thousands. Maybe even the millions.

They are individuals who came into this country in the custody of parents who sneaked in illegally. Many of them were babies, infants who needed mama’s milk to sustain them. They grew into pre-teens, then teenagers, then young adults and finally into full-grown adult human beings able to — and willing and capable — to contribute to the only society they know.

They are de facto Americans.

Texas is home to many of these individuals. They pay their taxes. They excel academically. A good number of these de facto Americans finish at or near the top of their academic classes. They make good livings, raising their families.

According to many Americans, though, they’re criminals. Why? Because they remained in this country illegally. Donald Trump wants to round them up and deport them. But … to where? The country of their birth. Never mind that these U.S. residents know nothing of their birth nation.

These folks are called Dreamers. They are living their dream by making a life in a country far removed from the deprivation they would suffer at home. They deserve to be treated humanely by the powers that be, not cast off as rubble the way Trump and his MAGA goons want to do.

I see the likes of Trump hit man Steven Miller yammer about deporting criminals and I want to puke. Many of these individuals who draw the ire of Miller and his ilk are seeking a chance to make it right. They want to forge a clear path to either permanent U.S. residency or citizenship. Whether they obtain a green card or a U.S. passport doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me.

I just want my government, which I pay for with my tax money, to show some heart and humanity to individuals many of whom have given more to the country of their choice than many of us have given to the country of our birth.

political news

Trump needs serious reality check

March 25, 2025 kanelis2012 3 Comments

Earth to Donald Trump: The nation’s founders, the men who crafted the government you were elected to lead, gave you limited power for a reason.

They didn’t want an imperial presidency in the United States of America.

Thus, Trump needs to comprehend that he cannot declare something to be and then expect it to occur.

He says he wants to take back the Panama Canal from Panama. He wants to purchase Greenland from Denmark. He wants Canada to become the 51st state of the United States.

The simple and undeniable fact is that Trump cannot possibly make any of that happen simply because he is the POTUS. Yet, he keeps blathering on with statements that defy all logic. They are utter nonsense. He has no authority anywhere to make any of it happen.

He declares media criticism of his antics to be “illegal.” He calls for the closing down of media outlets that present opinions with which he disagrees. He calls for the impeachment of federal judges … only to be scolded by the chief justice of the Supreme Court that impeachment is not an option for removal of judges who issue opinions at variance with Trump’s.

The dude is out of control. He is a maniac. He acts, talks and behaves with sheer stupdity.

However, Americans managed to elect this nimrod to the highest office in the land. Go … figure.

local news

Another tale of loss

March 24, 2025 kanelis2012 1 Comment

My reluctance to share this latest twist in my life’s journey has buckled under the pressure to reveal a bit about my family to all of you.

I lost my sister to illness not long ago. She was 14 months younger than me. She had suffered terribly for a long time with a list of ailments too long for me to count here. It was a bout with COPD that claimed my sis. Her heart stopped and the medics couldn’t bring her back.

Georgianne died in the house she shared with her husband.

Sis led a complicated life. However, we remained close despite some differences over many issues dating back to our teen years. It’s difficult to explain, except that I knew her my entire life. She was part of my life the moment I became aware of my surroundings as a toddler.

I have been feeling down in the dumps over the past several days. I guess it’s a feeling of mortality that has gripped me.

My parents weren’t allowed to grow old. Dad was 59 when he perished in a boating accident in 1980. Mom was 61 when she succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease four years later. My bride was 71 when she passed from glioblastoma — cancer of the brain. All but one of my parents’ eight siblings have passed away.

We’re going to gather later this week to celebrate Georgianne’s life in a service at a church she and her husband attended in a rural Washington state community. The next day we will gather at a cemetery in Portland to have her remains blessed by an Orthodox priest from the church where my sisters and I were baptized.

I have no particular need to tell you all of this, other than to put it in the open. I have one sister left and I venture to believe we will be drawn even closer than we are already … and that’s really saying something.

Maybe I should declare a bit of regret that I wasn’t always kind to my departed sister. She had this way of getting under my skin with the occasional statement or opinion that exhibited a stunning lack of awareness that others were hurting.

But … she was my sister. I loved her unconditionally. I will miss her for the rest of my life.

media news

News boycott continues

March 23, 2025 kanelis2012

Hey, boys and girls, I have an announcement to make, which is that my daytime news boycott is continuing with no sign of letting up.

I mentioned some weeks back that I was turning the TV off for the forseeable future for a number of reasons.

One is that I am sick of hearing Donald Trump’s name mentioned. Two, the news talking heads aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know about or expect to know about him. Three, I am enjoying the quiet in my North Texas home, with just my puppy Sabol and me making noise.

Truthfully, I have no interest in turning on the Fox Propaganda Channel and listen to those talking heads make excuses for Trump’s behavior or Elon Musk’s bullying of federal employees.

As for CNN and MSBNC, channels I normally tune into to learn the latest and the greatest news of the world, well, those folks are boring me with their repetitious recitals of what I already know about how those folks feel about POTUS No. 47 and his hired gun.

I am able to learn the important news as it develops. For instance, I learned of former heavyweight champion George Foreman’s death online. I learned about the wildfires in the Texas Hill Country and the savage wind that blew in the Panhandle.

So, the news that matters to me the most is getting through. I just don’t have the noise of voices blathering the same ol’-same ol’ through my house.

I’m going to keep it quiet around here for a good while longer.

national news

Trump 2.0 no better than Trump 1.0

March 21, 2025 kanelis2012 1 Comment

Word out of D.C. is that the second version of the Donald Trump adminisration is different from the first one.

The pundit class suggests that this version of Trump came into office prepared for the rigors of the office, whereas the first time around he entered office with nary a clue about anything.

The difference appears to be that Trump knows this time what he wants to do and is going about his business with ruthlessness and callous disregard for how it affects the people whose lives he is changing.

That’s better than before? Hardly!

The area where Trump remains horribly ignorant is in understanding the limits of his power. Whereas the first version of Trump didn’t know what the hell he was doing, the second version of him knows what he wants … but then issues orders as if they have the force of law.

The don’t.

A president cannot summarily fire public service employees. Nor can he dismantle a Cabinet office created by Congress. Nor can a POTUS ignore willingly an order issued by a federal judge. Nor can a president demand a judge be impeached just because he or she issues an order that angers Trump.

It’s far worse than a mixed bag with this version of the once-former president. He might be more organized and more pulled together than he was when he stumbled into office in 2017.

He also is far more dangerous than many of us even imagined.

Uncategorized

World has gone mad!

March 20, 2025 kanelis2012 1 Comment

Let us be sure we don’t pussyfoot around the obvious … which is that our political world has gone stark-raving mad.

How can I make such a claim? I have a friend in Germany, a journalist and a student of American politics. He usually is spot on with his understanding of U.S. political trends, as he said they occasionally mirror developing trends in Germany.

My friend wrote me a note that led with this: “I don’t understrand what is happening to your country.”

The major concern for my friend is the U.S.’s new found friendship with an assassin, a killer, a dictator and a highly aggressive head of state, Vladimir Putin.

Putin invaded Ukraine three years ago in a bold-faced territory grab from a sovereign nation. Ukraine also is an ally of the United States. President Biden immediately went to NATO officials to enlist their support for our financial and materiel aid to Ukraine. He got it.

Now, Biden is retired. He’s gone back to Delaware and is playing with his grandkids. Meanwhile, the nimrod who succeeded him has cozied up to Putin, seeking to broker a cease fire. Donald Trump hasn’t made a single demand of Russia other than for the troops to stop firing at Ukrainians.

Therefore, my friend in the beautifiul Bavaria region of Germany is as confused as many of us are about what has become of this nation.

For the first time in U.S. history, we have turned our backs on a dependable ally — Ukraine — in favor of an aggressor state while the two countries are in the middle of a bloody ground war!

Therein lies my friend’s confusion. He doesn’t understand this country. Nor do I.

legal news

Would he dare seek a third term?

March 19, 2025 kanelis2012

A member of my family, a fellow I consider to be a smart fellow, says he is concerned that Donald J. Trump will be able to finagle his way into a third term as POTUS.

He knows the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment limits the president to two elected terms. He knows that Trump has been elected twice.

I reminded my relative that Trump cannot do anything single-handedly. He needs Congress to amend the 22nd Amendment. Then he would need three-quarters of the 50 states to ratify it.

“It won’t happen,” I beseeched him. “Ohhhh, I don’t know,” came his reply.

The nation’s founders didn’t write a perfect governing document. It has been amended 27 times since its ratificationn in 1789. The founders, though, did set the bar quite high for those who want to change the framework of our democratic republic. They set strict legislative requirements and set a high standard for the number of state legislators needed to ratify an amendment.

Donald Trump, it seems to many of us, would like to be able to seek a third term as POTUS. But, he’ll be 83 years of age when his current term ends. The founders made it clear that to change the Constitutiion, pro-amendment fanatics need to jump through a lot of hoops to make it happen.

Trump and his moronic MAGA minions might think they hold all the cards to change the Constitution. They don’t. The founders made damn sure of the document’s strength by building in “checks and balances” to keep presidents in check.

It has worked so far. It will continue to do its job.

High Plains Blogger