All posts by kanelis2012

military news

Partisan divide over a war crime

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Should anyone be surprised that Democrats and Republicans can look at the same video evidence that seeks to explain whether a war crime took place and come to radically divergent views on whether a crime exists?

Not me. Nope. I guess I could have predicted that congressional Democrats would be aghast at what they saw while Republicans accept it as a proper response.

At issue is what they call a “double tap” on a speedboat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela to somewhere in the United States. Naval jets blasted the boat to smithereens in September and then returned to finish the job by killing two survivors who were clinging to the shattered remains of the boat. Critics accuse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of committing a war crime, as the rules of war state specifically that the survivors should have been captured and taken into custody. Republican lawmakers see it differently, contending that the survivors were trying to flip the boat back and I guess start it up to continue its mission … whatever the hell it is.

I haven’t seen the video so I cannot comment on its content. However, I saw video of the initial strike and it looked for all the world that the first missile delivered a serious kill shot on the watercraft.

Here’s the deal. The craft was spotted just off the Venezuelan coast. about 1,200 miles from Florida. For the speed boat to make it all the way to U.S. territory, it would need to refuel dozens of times along the way. Was this boat really a legitimate target for the U.S. Navy and was it actually packing the drugs that Donald Trump says?

Once again, we see a Defense Department acting on a shoot first-ask questions later policy.

I want to see proof that these craft are, in fact, carrying drugs and that they indeed are headed to our shores to inflict pain and suffering — and worse — on Americans. We are getting nothing close to evidence to back up the Trump administration’s assertions about what is going on.

Dude just wants to go to war. Oh, wait … he’d better ask Congress for permission first. That’s in the Constitution, the document that Trump likely has never read.

medical news

This idiocy takes the cake … seriously!

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Donald Trump continues to violate the Law of Idiocy by lowering the standard to never-before-seen levels.

Take his response recently during a two-hour Cabinet meeting about the MRI he received from the White House medical staff. A reporter asked Trump about the exam and its purpose. What were the docs looking for? the reporter wondered.

Trump answered with a lie that defies one’s ability to understand anything. You can’t make this up.

He said he “didn’t know” the reason for the MRI. Many millions of us have gone through an MRI procedure. It involves lying perfectly still on a tube that makes a whole lotta noise. It usually takes about 30 minutes to complete the exam.

You must understand this: There isn’t a medical doctor alive today who doesn’t tell the patient precisely why he or she is being asked to subject themselves to such discomfort. That only can mean that Trump lied about his supposed ignorance about why he received the MRI. Why in the name of medical malpractice would Trump have to lie about that? Never mind. He probably wants to hide whatever medical condition from which he might be suffering. Can’t reveal his humanity … y’know?

Anyhow, he lied about a subject that should become public knowledge. After all, he is the president of the U.S. of A., and that includes millions of us who don’t give a damn about the man personally, but who do care about whether our government is working for us.

And this moron is the nation’s chief executive!

local news

City falls short on building ban goals

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All righty, kids, where does the city of Princeton, Texas, stand in its effort to prepare for the deluge of new residents wanting to call this North Texas city home?

The city council voted recently to rescind a building moratorium it had declared a year or so ago. The council decided to stop issuing building permits for new homes and apartments because it needed to shore up its infrastructure to prepare for the ongoing tidal wave of new residents.

Did the city succeed? Uhhh … no. Not even close. The Princeton Herald reports that the 2025 Legislature enacted laws aimed at preventing future building bans. So the city was left with no choice but to start issuing building permits.

What about the infrastructure, you know, the streets, sewer, water and emergency services personnel the city said it needs to shore up? A few streets have been improved. Near as I can tell the water and sewer systems are as they were when the ban took effect. Police and fire? I hear that Police Chief Jim Waters asked for seven new officers; he got two. The fire department is equally short staffed.

As a taxpaying resident of this rapidly growing community, I am asking: What the hell is going on at City Hall? City Manager Mike Mashburn walked into something of a bee’s nest when he took the job held for all those years by former Manager Derek Borg. There’s now an active recall movement afoot against at least one incumbent city council member and I understand that Mayor Eugene Escobar has signed on in support of one of the recall efforts. What in the world … ?

All the while, the city continues to struggle with providing the infrastructure it said was necessary when it enacted a building ban on new single-family homes and apartment complexes.

Seems to me someone needs to take a firm hold of the municipal rudder and start steering this ship toward serious stability.

local news

On a roll heading for ’26

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You know, there are days when everything one touches turns to doo-doo and there are days when the stars align just right for you.

Today is one of those latter days for me. I now shall explain.

A few weeks ago I was involved in a minor accident that damaged the driver’s side of my Maverick pickup. The damage wasn’t huge, but it was still costly to repair. I picked my vehicle up and drove it home after a couple of weeks in the Princeton, Texas, body shop.

Then a strange event occurred a couple of days later. The driver’s side door suddenly was sprung. I couldn’t open or close it without scraping the edge of the door against the front fender. I had to reconfigure the interior of the truck to enable me to enter and exit the vehicle through the passenger door … a royal pain in the patootie. I called the body shop to tell them what happened. No sweat, they said. Bring it in and we’ll examine it and let you know the extent of the repair, they said.

I delivered the Mav to the body shop today at 8:40 a.m. At 9:15 the young lady, Devin, emerged to inform me “the door isn’t sticking any longer. Come back and take a look at it.” I did and met the mechanic who performed what I consider to be something of a miracle repair job. Poncho me told the wind might have caught the door and sprung it.

What? That’s it? Yep, he said. It’s all good, he added. It took 35 minutes. Period.

If that’s the case, then the damage to the truck wasn’t necessarily a result of faulty repair. That was Poncho’s best guess. However, Poncho fixed the problem without charging me anything for it.

Some days it is good to wake up on the right side of the bed. Today is one of those days.

national news, political news

World has gone mad!

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There can be no getting around what I believe is obvious, which is that our world has gone mad, nuts, bonkers, into the loony bin … and beyond.

I’m going to harken to the 2024 presidential election in which a tiny plurality of Americans decided to ignore the obvious warning signs about the Republican Party nominee for president and elected this guy to a second term in the White House.

Yep. Donald Trump told us what was in store if we elected him. He would be the “retribution” for the MAGA cult and that he would all by himself fix what he said was wrong with the greatest nation on Earth. My goodness! The message could not possibly have been clearer!

He took office on Jan. 20, 2025 and commenced to do precisely what he said he would do. And no one seemed to care! OK, many of us did care. We have been raising holy hell ever since the end of the ’24 campaign. But those in power have blown it off.

It’s getting worse by the day. I read Trump’s “Thanksgiving message” and wanted to puke onto my lap. He hurled racial slurs, insults, epithets and utter rubbish at his opponents. Damn near every word that poured forth from his overfed pie hole was a lie.

Now there appears to be significant evidence of cognitive decline. He’s falling asleep in Oval Office meetings. Try reading transcripts of statements he makes and if you can discern a cogent message out of them, be sure to broadcast it loudly and clearly because no one has been able to make a shred of sense of what this guy is saying.

I’ll say it again, with gusto … which is that we have gone ’round the bend, kids. It is imperative that we collect ourselves and get busy fixing what is fundamentally wrong with our republic.

political news

This ‘ticket’ deserves an early look

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As a general rule I don’t think one bit about potential presidential tickets this early in an election season, but I am going to make an exception today.

I keep seeing social media memes that suggest a potential Democratic ticket comprising California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly might be in the making. I’ll make this admission, which is that such a notion sounds pretty appealing to me. I happen to think a lot about both men.

I hear that Newsom has his foes in California, as he governs the state in a kind of spotty fashion. He has emerged as an articulate foe of Donald Trump … who won’t be on the 2028 GOP ballot. He has crafted a humor campaign against the Republicans that pokes fun at Democrats, drawing bipartisan laughter.

I should state here that the chatter has Newsom running for POTUS, Kelly for VPOTUS.

I’ll admit, too, that of the pair Kelly has emerged as the bigger media star. Trump has singled Kelly out as a seditionist, claiming he should face the death penalty if convicted of a “crime” that involves him declaring that military personnel must not obey “an unlawful order.”

It’s particularly laughable that Kelly would be targeted in this manner. The senator graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, served for 25 years in the Navy, flew 39 combat missions in Iraq, flew four times aboard space shuttles and has been elected to the U.S. Senate. The man has led a full life … all of it committed to public service.

I won’t commit to undying devotion to this Democratic tandem. Kelly has to win re-electiion to the Senate next year, which I believe he will do. He has lashed out articulately against Trump’s foolishness. As for Newsom, well, who knows if some skeletons emerge from the governor’s closet?

It’s still early and I am willing to suggest there will be a lot of Democrats — and Republicans — seeking the keys to the White House in 2028.

crime news, local news

Museum always breathtaking

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DALLAS — It doesn’t matter how many times I have come to this exhibit — or how many times I will see it in the future — every visit fills me with awe about one of this country’s most profound tragedies.

I came here this week with a dear friend to tour the Sixth Floor Museum, which commemorates the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. Sixty-two years have passed since that horrifying day and I continue to be struck by how that single senseless act sent a great city’s emotional psyche spiraling into the sewer.

I saw for the first time on this visit a copy of the Dallas Morning News editorial page published on the day of JFK’s visit. The editorial referred to the city’s “partisan cleavage” that would disappear hopefully that day as it welcomed the 35th president of the United States. Indeed, there had been fear that right-wing activists might protest the president’s visit, accusing him of being “soft” on the Soviet Union.

Well, it turned out the world was looking in the wrong direction. Lee Harvey Oswald turned out to be an avowed Marxist who two days later met his own end when a night club owner, Jack Ruby, shot him in the gut as he was being transferred from the city jail to the county lockup.

I continue to be struck by the quietness of the large crowd of museum-goers who were milling around the sixth floor, looking at the artifacts, reading the text on the walls explaining JFK’s legacy, his record, his accomplishments and even where he fell short during the 1,000 days of his presidency. I found myself whispering information into the ear of my friend; I didn’t want to make any sort of unwanted noise. I felt as though we were in a church sanctuary.

I likely won’t ever buy into the notion that John Kennedy should rank among the nation’s great presidents. One thousand days doesn’t give anyone much of a chance to carve out a lasting legislative legacy. He had some success and he fell short a time or two during his time in office.

He did bring a huge wellspring of hope to a nation that needed it in the moment. That hope was blown to bits by the gunman aiming his rifle from the sixth floor of a building that reportedly was destined to be torn down.

I’ll be back again someday. I cannot get enough of that exhibit.

national news

Trump goes beyond vile with this screed

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Many of us were waiting for this sort of thing from the man posing as POTUS … but we got something even worse.

Here is how Donald Trump opened his Thanksgiving Day screed of insults, vitriol and outright racism:

“A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being ‘Politically Correct,’ and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration.”

It gets even more despicable.

This individual is certifiably off his rocker. He is fu**ing nuttier than a Snickers bar.

The rest of his series of social media posts are chockful of lies, smears, slurs, demogogic statements, stuff that could have been gleaned from KKK or white supremacist manifestos … and they sound for all the world like the beliefs of a serial sociopath/madman.

And to think that a tiny plurality of Americans actually elected this certifiable moron to the nation’s highest office.

I will invite any of you who are interested in reading what this dipshit said to look it up on the Internet. It’s out there in its sickening entirety.

OK, here is a taste of what I am talking about.

A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being “Politically Correct,” and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration. The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens who, because of their beautiful hearts, do not want to openly complain or cause trouble in any way, shape, or form. They put up with what has happened to our Country, but it’s eating them alive to do so! A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family. The real migrant population is much higher. This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.). As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for “prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how “badly” she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc…

I trust you’ll see what I am talking about.

Uncategorized

One holiday at a time … thank you!

The street where I live in Princeton, Texas, is part of a nice subdivision just south of U.S. 380. It’s next to an elementary school and the neighborhood is crawling with kids who run or skateboard to school each morning.

The homes are modest, but nice. It’s probably my forever place to live.

But as I look up and down the street this evening just after saying good night to my family who were here to celebrate Thanksgiving with dear ol’ Dad and Grandpa, I am struck by the sight of lights adorning rooflines celebrating Christmas. Some of the houses have those blow-up decorations on the lawn depicting Santa Claus, Rudy the Reindeer and assorted other symbols of Christmas.

I have to tell you that it boggles my mind how folks can celebrate two famed holidays at once. I mean, c’mon! Thanksgiving is quite enough to stand all by itself in Americans’ homes, as it commemorates the settling of this great land along the 13 Colonies in the 17th and early 18th centuries. We went to war with the Crown to win independence from the Brits. I watched “The Patriot” the other evening just to remind myself of the brutality associated with the American Revolution.

Now I turn my attention to Christmas. Not while I’m carving a turkey in the kitchen and serving it to my sons, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter.

One holiday at a time is sufficient for this old-timer.

national news

Will Trump choke on this message?

Americans from coast to coast are getting ready to celebrate a uniquely American holiday when they commemorate Thanksgiving. I am — strange as it sounds — waiting to hear how the president of the United States is going to honor the day.

Donald Trump has repeatedly botched what should be a simple task: to deliver a statement honoring veterans, or the birth of the nation, or to honor the flag we fly on our front porches. He tends to politicize everything. He also has laced his comments with a level of snarkiness that simply has no place.

Will the man in the White House deliver a snotty statement sometime tomorrow or will he somehow rise to the occasion and speak to us as the leader of the nation he was elected to lead? I have no particular expectation on what we’ll get from this fellow.

To borrow the cliche, I’ll hope for the best but won’t be surprised if Trump falls on his face … again.