kanesrealm

Last weekend President Trump issued an Executive Order banning travel to the United States from seven majority Muslim nations. The media and opponents have called it a Muslim ban. It's easy to understand why that is. Trump's own campaign rhetoric calling for a Muslim ban and his use of the word "ban" last weekend in his usual word salad speaking style have fed the notion. However, the order itself doesn't say this. It is a pause on refugees and citizens of those countries entering the United States until "we" evaluate the vetting process for those visitors. As a democratic Republic it was handled sloppily and incompetently, as an authoritarian state it would be considered business as usual and there is the problem, well, one of them. Note carefully that because of the backlash in our country, the Trump Administration and key Republicans have gone out of their way to point out that the seven countries in question are the ones that were identified by the ...

Lyin' Donald Trump is at it again. Lyin' Donald Trump, it's so true, he's such a liar folks, no really, many people are saying it and there not small lies, he lies biggly. Trump says Hillary Clinton wants to take away all of our guns, every last one of them, right down to the derringer strapped to your Aunt Minnie's inner thigh. It's not true, no way, no how. It's a scare tactic aimed at whipping up a furor among our less in depth reflective citizens. Should we strengthen our gun laws nationally? Absolutely as long as they meet the common sense test. I know, we're not big on common sense but we should give it the old college try. Assault rifles were once banned and the freedom of the nation did not fall. That ban expired in 2004 and sales have been booming ever since, especially the AR-15 which is now America's favorite assault rifle. Strictly for target practice and hunting of course. You can't be too careful when hunting these days because th...

Yes, that's the title of the post, I don't create the news I just comment on it. First let's address the statement of Hillary Clinton during last Saturday night's Democratic Debate. Clinton made the case that Trump's Muslim rhetoric is bad for America and hurts our fight against terrorism, that his views are being shown throughout the Islamic world and is a tool for recruitment. This is true, the media in the middle east including Al Jazeera is following our election and broadcasting the words of candidates including Donald Trump. Clinton added in the second part of her statement that ISIS is using Trump in recruiting videos. No video has yet been seen directly made by ISIS or their surrogates. That does not change the fact that she is correct in her analysis and frankly the analysis of every expert on the subject. Trump demanded an apology from Clinton, which he really doesn't want because it keeps a non-story alive and his name in play. Trump firmly embraces...

Bobby Jindal dropped out of the Republican sweepstakes, so yeah, not much more to say there. So long Bob. After the terrorist attacks and the intensive press coverage I had to shut the news off last Saturday and that is why you, my dear readers, received no thoughts on the Democratic debate that night. Without seeing it I can tell you it was irrelevant. I opted to binge watch episodes of Stargate and Xena, my time was well spent. Sometimes you've just got to pull the plug and disconnect. I want to take this opportunity to tell all of the news channels to stop playing the combo sad and ominous soundtracks while reporting on Paris. Just stop it, this is not a movie or T.V. show, just stop. Everything seems bleak but I tell you it is not. Something quite uncommon may be about to happen. ISIS/ISIL may very well have just signed their death warrant and accomplished the unimaginable. All 28 members of the European Union are unified and have invoked full cooperative security measures, ...

President Obama announced this past week that we would be sending 500 military "advisors" to Iraq to assist Sunni factions directly. This is part of our unclear strategy to deal with ISIS. I promise this is not a commentary about how we should never have fought the Iraq War to begin with. (See how I worked that in, clever me.) Last year former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates was on the lecture circuit pushing his autobiography. Gates has been widely respected on both sides of the aisle, serving at Defense under both Bush and Obama. During the book tour he stated that Joe Biden was wrong about most things involving foreign affairs. In particular Gates says he was wrong when he urged that Iraq be divided into three autonomous regions with a  weakened federal government to represent Iraq on the global stage and to equitably distribute the oil wealth. Joe Biden didn't pull that idea out of thin air. He pulled it out of history. The Iraq we all know is not a real country. It ...

According to some poll 62% of Americans favor boots on the ground to combat ISIS. Yes I do know which poll but it doesn't matter because a poll can be manipulated to get any answer you want. There are those suggesting a return to the Draft so that more Americans will have "skin in the game", that part is in quotations because I despise the term. Let me assure you no Draft will put the privileged and their offspring in the game. It will continue to be poor people fighting the wars but the pay and benefits would be slashed. Sound good to you? The volunteer service has served us well and should be preserved. It is our very foolish political leaders of the last two administrations who has stretched our military capabilities too thin and taken a severe toll on our soldiers and their families. I have a great idea for fighting ISIS, let the middle eastern countries pull their heads out of their collective asses and join together to defeat that despicable group. A group that r...