Tag Archives: Donald Trump

When these men speak …

June 13, 2025 kanelis2012 Leave a comment

When men of the caliber of several general-grade military officers speak with one voice about the conduct of the commander in chief, it is time to take heed.

They all say essentially the same thing about Donald Trump. That he doesn’t honor the office he occupies and is embarking on a dangerous path toward a dictatorship.

Former Marine Gens. John Kelly and James Mattis, former Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, former Army Gen. Martin Dempsey all speak with a single voice. Mattis said Trump is purposely seeking to divide the nation. Kelly said we need to gauge who we elect as president on the basis of his character. Mullen said he has been reluctant to speak out but we have reached a “transformative point.” Dempsey said U.S. citizens are not “the enemy.”

I will follow the wisdom of these patriots at any time before I would believe a single statement that flies out of Trump’s mouth. These men all have fought for their nation. One of them — Gen. Kelly — lost a son who died in combat. They know better than most of us the value of public service and the price one can pay in service to the nation we all love.

I have stated before that Donald Trump has spent his entire adult life in pursuit of self-enrichment. That is continuing to this very moment. To think Americans elected someone with zero regard for the democratic principles he pledged to protect and defend is an affront to anyone who calls themselves a patriot.

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Trump makes startling admission

June 10, 2025 kanelis2012 Leave a comment

The Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance is a goner, but left virtually untouched has been a startling admission that Trump made while denigrating the character of the world’s richest human being.

Musk has called Trump’s “big beautiful bill” an “abomination” and said Trump should be impeached. Trump’s response? He called Musk a man with a serious drug problem. I forget the exact words he used, but he said that Musk has been battling drug addiction.

OK. Here’s what is so remarkable. Trump hired a drug addict to remake the federal government, allegedly. He hired a guy he said couldn’t be trusted to remain sober long enough to make intelligent decisions about the future of government programs upon which millions of Americans depend.

What the f***?

Of course, Trump didn’t offer a single shred of proof of the allegation he has made about Musk’s alleged drug habit. The point, though, is that Trump has said time and again how he relies on hiring the “best people” to do the work on his behalf.

Which is it, dude?

Moreover, where is the media on all this? No one has explored the substance of what Trump has alleged about Mr. Tesla/SpaceX and the things he says drives this world’s richest human.

This idiot, the president, needs to be held accountable for the recklessness of his rhetoric.

national news

Populism has been perverted

May 25, 2025 kanelis2012

Let’s revisit a political philosophy that in this current age of perversion has been twisted and shaped into something that bears zero resemblance to what many of us have understood it to mean.

Populism! It has become a mantra repeated by the MAGA morons who now dominate the Republican Party. I decided to check what my dog-eared American Heritage Dictionary has to say about the term.

It states: “Populism: A political philosophy opposing the concentration of power in the hands of corporations, the government and the rich.”

I have to ask: Does that sound like what we’re getting from Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the MAGA numbskulls these days? Not to me.

Nope. Trump has done quite the opposite. He has scarfed up tremendous amounts of power for himself. He and Musk have summarily fired thousands of individuals from government service. He wants to bestow tax breaks for zillionaires, while slashing Medicare and Medicaid benefits from ordinary slobs like you and me. Trump has sicced the Justice Department on media outlets and anyone who has dared speak out against what he intends to do; he has taken DOJ “weaponization” to a level never before contemplated.

I don’t recall Trump ever saying a single word about any of this while campaigning twice for the presidency. Do you? I didn’t think so. He said he would look out for the little guy. He campaigned as a populist. You remember that, right?

Except that Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the term. I have just laid it out there for all of you. Maybe someone who reads this blog can let Trump know what one man’s dictionary says about the philosophy he has perverted into something unrecognizable.

Now, though, comes the big question: When in the name of fighting back against the deceit and lies will Republicans in power rise up to seize the power that this tinhorn dictator seeks for himself?

Is there any courage left in the halls of power? Populism … my ass!

Donald Trump

What would Mom and Dad think?

May 1, 2025 kanelis2012 2 Comments

My late parents departed this Earth long before Donald J. Trump burst onto the nation’s political scene.

Dad was gone in 1980; Mom died four years later. Neither of them had the displeasure of suffering from the whims and machinations of this truly bizarre individual. Still, I think about them every day even without having to attach their names to what they might be thinking about what the current president is doing to our economy and to our standing in the world.

I’ll be candid on assessing their analytical skills. Dad wasn’t much of a critical thinker. He relied on his gut. A side of me actually thinks he might have been impressed by Trump’s phony bravado. Dad was a proud World War II veteran, though, and my hope is that he would be repulsed by Trump’s blatant disrespect for those of us who did don the uniform of our country.

Mom, however, was a much deeper thinker than Dad. I will presume that she would be aghast at Trump’s homophobia, his racism, lack of empathy and compassion, his boasting of business skills when he’s run every endeavor he’s ever touched into the ground.

Therefore, on these matters, I am much more my mother’s son than I am a part of Dad.

They’re no longer around and I shudder to think how they would respond to what is unfolding during this second Donald Trump turn as POTUS.

I shudder, indeed, at how Dad might be cheering the charlatan on as he lies through his teeth. More importantly, though, I shudder at how Mom would respond to this individual’s overall unfitness for the nation’s highest and most honored public office.

local news

Friendships come and go … forever

April 30, 2025 kanelis2012 2 Comments

Never in my advanced years on this good Earth have I experienced the loss of friendships in the manner I have done in recent times.

Yes, during the Age of Donald John Trump.

This novice politician has cost me friendships I thought for many years would be unbreakable. They might bend to the point of breaking. They would snap back like a sapling.

No longer.

Three quick examples come to mind of the relationships that been torn apart.

One involves a fellow I knew when I worked in Amarillo. He hails from Pampa. We met for lunch on occasion. We didn’t talk politics when we shared a meal, but we sure did when we sat behind our keyboards. We got into a snit one time and my pal cut me off. He was gone.

Another was a former colleague of mine at the Amarillo Globe-News. I left the paper in August 2012, he stayed on. We argued over this and that Trump policy. We became ex-friends. We stayed that way until he suffered a stroke and died a few years ago.

Yet another was a friend with whom I worked in Beaumont. We maintained our friendship even though he hailed from Arkansas and detested Bill and Hillary Clinton; I felt differently about them than he did, but our friendship survived. Along came Trump and my friend severed our relationship. It remained that way for the rest of his life.

I have struggled to understand why now do political differences get in the way of friendships. I have concluded this must be the nature of the politician who is the common denominator. Trump destroys friendships by turning on men and women on whom he depends. When they cross him, he cuts them off, sends them adrift.

Therefore, it seems to me, the same “logic” follows among those who adhere to the Trumpian blathering and those who oppose it … and him.

I am uncomfortable functioning in this environment. It’s not that I count many acquaintances as “friends.” I have few actual friends in this world. The rest of them are acquaintances, many of them do evolve into actual relationships.

I am happy to report that the few lifelong friendships I have forged over many decades are surviving this tempestuous time. However, we aren’t yet past this tumult.

national news

Trump’s ‘ratings’ are, um, tanking

April 26, 2025 kanelis2012 1 Comment

Donald J. Trump’s political career has been a testimony to his “ratings,” as he has said himself countless times.

Dude was a reality TV celebrity before becoming a politician, who he knows about ratings. He would boast that his political “ratings” were the best in human history … or words to that effect. He would chide his foes for their “failed ratings.”

We’re now 80-some days into the second term of Trump’s time in office. Know what? Man’s ratings are taking a header off the proverbial cliff.

Makes me wonder: Why is the Dumbass in Chief being so silent about them? No need to answer. I know that the charlatan cares only about news he deems favorable to him. Everything else is “fake,” or is a conspiracy of some sort.

This is what happens when a politician simply doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Meaning that Trump just doesn’t know, for example, that his tariff tantrum is going to result in a national tax increase for every living American.

He and his sidekick, Elon Musk, have set about cutting inspectors general loose, slashing the ranks of national park personnel, Social Security staffers, limiting veterans benefits, slashing foreign aid to countries that need assistance to fend off disease. Oh, and turning this country’s back on an ally in the middle of a ground war with Russia.

I don’t recall Trump ever boasting that he would do all these things while he campaigned for office in 2024. Do you?

Of course not. It’s because the Ignoramus in Chief doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

business news

My head is spinning!

April 22, 2025 kanelis2012 1 Comment

Seriously! I cannot stop my head from turning round-and-round, the way Linda Blair’s did in “The Exorcist.”

Donald Trump’s tariff tantrum has me so damn dizzy at this point, I am afraid to stand straight up out of fear I am going to topple over. The tariff nonsense is the only explanation I can offer for the way my retirement investment account keeps reacting.

I lose several thousand dollars in one day, then reclaim most of it the following day. The investors who are monkeying around with my money can’t seem to settle on what they think Trump will do next. Then again, I don’t believe Trump knows what he’s going to do!

Over the course of weeks since Trump announced his decision to impose worldwide tariffs on everything this nation imports, people just like me have felt the same dizzyness. If we had a president who knew anything about what he has done, he could cease this nonsense right now.

He took office vowing to preserve and protect our rights. One of them is not written precisely into the Constitution, but I think we have a right to enjoy a retirement without fear of what the president of the United States of America is going to do to cause our retirement funds to take flight.

Is that so hard to understand? Am i being unreasonable to expect the president to stop this tariff horsesh** because he knows the damage he is doing to millions of Americans?

It’s not an unreasonable thing to expect, other than it requires Donald Trump to process hard reality the way most normal people do. This guy ain’t normal. He is way beyond abnormal.

He is certifiably stupid beyond measure.

And this is the guy who got elected president of the United States. Go fu**ing figure.

Donald Trump

Yes, I want POTUS to succeed

April 17, 2025 kanelis2012

Believe this or disbelieve it, but I want to clear the air on an issue that needs clearing.

It is the future of the presidency under the regime led by Donald J. Trump. In short, i actually want Trump to succeed. I don’t wish him success because he deserves high praise; he seeks it out even when he doesn’t deserve it.

I want the country to reap the benefit of whatever success Trump can bring forth.

I consider myself to be an American patriot, not a phony patriot who believes the lies that pour out of Trump’s mouth. I ain’t a MAGA American, as I believe the nation has retained its greatness even during the most difficult times imaginable.

What do I believe will happen with some of Trump’s policies? I believe the tariff tantrum he’s on only will worsen our daily lives by driving up the cost of damn near everything we consume. His deportation policy is heartless and inhumane. Trump’s meddling in higher education only weakens universities’ traditional independence.

The guy is a classic RINO, calling himself a “conservative” while unleashing the government to punish his political foes … to whom he refers as enemies.

I am a fair-minded fellow, regardless of what some critics of this blog might believe. I want Trump to succeed because continued failure only means more rough days ahead for the rest of us.

OK, maybe I’m self-serving in wishing the best for Trump’s policies. If he succeeds, we’ll all reap the reward.

High Plains Blogger