kanesrealm

The internet is filled with abandoned blogs. Some have many posts, others none or very few. The ones with many and then suddenly stop have left me wondering, what happened to the writer? The self evident conclusion is boredom, frustration or it simply had served it's purpose. Rarely is there a final post saying goodbye. There was a blog I used to read that ended in 2012 with a final post that touched me deeply. The writer had Alzheimer's and was no longer able to give all that he wished. He thanked his readers and said farewell with the heart wrenching poem "The Long Goodbye." From early 2007 to late 2009 I wrote a blog that mainly covered the Presidential election of 2008. By 2009 I had reached a plateau, it had met it's purpose and a restlessness had descended on me. When I launched Kanes Realm I had no specific direction in mind, though clearly politics became the focus. I have called this Presidential election a season of disgust and it has been so because ...

I'm a political junkie. I watch a lot of news and political programming. C-Span has been my companion since it's founding. I also read a lot, including these things called books. I have been this way since the age of thirteen, when I never missed Firing Line and the McLaughlin Group and any P.B.S. political documentary and oh yeah those books I so often refer to. This continued throughout my teenage years and no I was not a popular kid, go figure. As I grew older my interest only intensified and my knowledge of history and politics has nothing to do with the dribble fed to me by the public school system. It comes from my own personal quest for knowledge. I've always looked forward to the political season, though I believe firmly it lasts too long and we need to make serious changes. Some years are boring, some are nail biters but none have disgusted me more than this Presidential cycle. No matter who has been President in my lifetime, whether I agree with them or not my p...

If you only listen to the far right of the Republican Party and the middle right who give a wink and a small nod, the answer is voter fraud is rampant, well not rampant but happening, well not happening but it could. Some would have you believe we're no better than a one party third world nation that has special inspectors review all the paper ballots before announcing the results. Naturally those inspectors are appointed by the sitting President and not all of those ballots will reach the final count. It's all a lie. Indiana was one of the first States to pass Voter I.D. laws. It was a central theme in the administration of our then Secretary of State Todd Rokita. In the fall of 2003 I attended a Republican Party breakfast with my then boss. The featured speaker was none other than Secretary Rokita. The voter I.D. issue brought many questions. Rokita freely admitted that there were no problems with voter fraud occurring in Indiana but it was better to be safe than sorry. Al...

...if you subscribe to the theory of voting for the lesser of two evils. Now, I know what you're thinking, this advice seems to go against my advocacy for voting, not so. So great is my love for humanity that I want to save you from yourself, whoa, that was a little too far to the left. Let's reel that back a bit, I'm no nanny. If you vote for the lesser of two evils you are still voting for evil. If you're voting for evil the rest of us would prefer not to suffer the consequences of your evil ways. To recap, don't vote on November 8, 2016. Thank you. Do I have your attention? Probably not but let's continue. It is unhealthy to adhere to the evil philosophy of political candidates or to vote against someone. You are better off to vote FOR someone. Very early in the creation of this blog I wrote about some of the bullshit reasons people give for not voting and cheerfully shred each one. I encourage you to read that, especially if you're new here. This will ...

Wise men wait, only fools rush in, humm, interesting thought. Do you think maybe the media should take a breath and think about that? No, no, you're quite right, not necessary at all. In the wake of the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom our press corps immediately began drawing comparisons between that vote and the general election campaign in our own country, suggesting the rise of Donald Trump plays into some global narrative. I suppose if you know nothing, are easily deceived, intellectually lazy and subject to mental contortionism then there might be a sliver of plausibility in the argument. But if you're open to it, how about we take a walk down a more enlightened path. This ought to go without saying but apparently it can't, the British are not European. They are a pivotal country in the history of the world. Remember when they ruled the world? Of course not, it's been too long ago but perhaps you are familiar with the phrase the sun never sets on the British Em...