kanesrealm

I smell confusion, a confusion spread by the media and politicians who either need a Constitutional refresher or are deliberately pretending the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is easy to trigger. Section 4 is what matters in the case of removing Donald J. Trump for alleged mental deficiencies. It reads exactly as follows: "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office of Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall r...

If you blog, you're familiar with that phrase. It's a part of the behind the scenes information all bloggers track. I learned from my first blog to not allow any comment to automatically post without my prior approval, not to stop opposing views, but to filter out inappropriate drive by hits and babbling about things unrelated to the specific post. There are rarely comments left on this blog so it hasn't been a hectic reviewing process. But something strange has occurred in the stats section which tells me how many people have visited the blog. Today a very large number of people supposedly read my little plop. Here's the rub, this happened about a week and half ago with a day of large numbers of views, exciting, except when I checked back a day later, those numbers were gone and it showed zero for that day. I will of course be checking on today's abnormally high number. Exactly what is occurring I don't know. Is it a glitch or something else? Frequently the po...

How ya feelin' champ? A little better? Just take a spoonful of Pepto and a sedative at bedtime, you'll be fine, mostly. Let's start with a deep breath, now on to some useless analysis. We'll begin with draining the swamp. That phrase actually means nothing. Swamps encompass an entire ecosystem and the creatures living there are amazingly adaptable, so it is in politics. Most of the names being floated for the new Trump Administration are old well known names and insiders. Rience Priebus has been appointed Chief of Staff, there is no greater insider in Republican politics than it's current Party Chairman and it is a direct olive branch to the Republican leadership in Congress. Steve Bannon of Breitbart News and a former senior executive of Goldman Sachs has been named Chief Strategist, which simply means advisor, although President-elect Trump says he will be equal to Priebus which is, strange. All Presidents have paid advisors. It seems the long reach of Goldman S...

The worst Vice-presidential debate in my life time and it's a very low bar because they are meaningless. No one votes for Vice-president they vote only for the top of the ticket. A V.P. pick can hurt but never help. Last night Tim Kaine and Mike Pence had their one and only debate and we are all greatful for that. Kaine should have had decaf leading up to the event and Pence should have consulted his good back about not being a lying douchebag, oh that's right it tells him he can be. The entire ninety minutes was a nonsense driven talking over each other mish mash of gibberish. You can find other interpretations of the debate and I say knock yourself out but you're wasting your time, you shouldn't even be reading this. Mike Pence repeatedly lied through his teeth and refused to defend Donald Trump. Pence accepted the V.P. slot because he knew that he was going to lose his re-election bid for Governor in Indiana and he did not want to deal with the humiliation. His sp...

Trump running mate and current Indiana Governor Mike Pence is having trouble with words, which is nothing new. But his recent stumble with regards to David Duke is easy to have avoided. CNN's Wolf Blitzer tried to get Pence to say Duke is deplorable and he wouldn't. If it was because he knew it was the incorrect word to use it would be refreshing but it's not. The Trump Campaign is using the word deplorable to attack Clinton over her recent comments, so it's a political maneuver, not an understanding of definitions. I just recently posted a commentary concerning the word deplorable and what it actually means. Language is made up of words and words have a meaning. Unfortunately at a certain age most adults seem to just never consult a dictionary again in their lifetimes. Even those with a solid formal education do this. None of us know the exact meaning of every word in the English language, I certainly don't and I love words. My dictionaries are always at my finger...

I know you're disappointed, it's not the Kane you wanted, but he's a damn fine second choice! Hillary Clinton has done something Donald Trump did not. She chose the running mate she wanted, the running mate she wants as a governing partner and someone she can trust. There may be some Bernie Sanders supporters that don't like the pick but they need to remember two things, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Nomination and she has every right to pick the running mate of her choice and do they want a Trump Presidency? Clinton has been very accommodating to the Sanders Team during the platform creation. She has reached out to Bernie and his supporters. Now it's their turn to demonstrate that they really want to move forward or replace rationalism with fatalism in a Trump Presidency. Tim Kaine is an outstanding choice for Vice-president. Constitutionally speaking he has one job and he's more than qualified and capable of delivering on it if called upon. With him C...

You invite someone to your home, he drops his pants and shits on the new carpet, what are you to do? That's what Ted Cruz did to Donald Trump last night. In a primetime address that lasted over twenty minutes Cruz did not endorse Trump or say he was the man for the job and ended with vote your conscience. The speech itself was a recitation of untrue Cruziness preparing himself for 2020. Cruz believes that Trump is going to lose and as the man who came closest to defeating him, he will be turned to after November to lead an American Shadow Cabinet against the Clinton Administration. He is of course deluding himself however, stranger things have happened, such as Trump for President. Newt Gingrich tried to mend the fences over Cruz when he spoke and then proceeded to scare the children with threats of nuclear holocaust on the East Coast. Eric Trump gave a speech extolling the virtues of his father and thanked him for his life. I'm sure membership in the Trump lucky sperm club ...

The first two days of the Republican Convention are now over. Each night was to have a specific theme but that didn't happen. It has been wall to wall Hillary Clinton is an evil maniacal monster that should be put in prison. Hellfire is raining down on America and only Trump has an asbestos umbrella, not enough room for all of us, but the special will be saved. This is the most negative convention I've seen in my lifetime and I'm a political junkie who always watches them. This one is excruciatingly painful. Only Tiffany Trump, his daughter by Marla Maples, gave a positive humanizing speech about Donald Trump. Very few speakers have spoken glowingly about Donald Trump and laid out a case for why he would be a good President. There has been no case made based on policies. It has been disorganized and amateurshly managed. Trump is so pompous and narcissistic he has made an appearance every night. Chris Christie delivered a bombastic speech in the guise of an indictment of ...

Donald Trump and Mike Pence appeared on 60 Minutes this past Sunday night. It was probably to show what a dynamic duo they form but it showed anything but that. Pence barely got to speak and looked like a man who would rather be having a colonoscopy. He was clearly uncomfortable and afraid to say anything that might irritate his new boss. He has clearly been counseled to watch out for the alpha dog's urine stream. Donald Trump is consistently a hypocrite and his selection of Mike Pence as his running mate is the pinnacle of proof. Trump regularly attacks Hillary Clinton for her vote to invade Iraq. Mike Pence was in Congress at the same time and also voted yes. Trump regularly and viciously attacks Hillary Clinton for advising President Obama to go into Libya to support the overthrow of Muhamar Khadaffi. Mike Pence was in Congress at the time and agreed with Hillary Clinton and fully supported going into Libya. In spite of Trump's continuing assertion that he was against goi...

So it's now official, Governor Mike Pence is Donald Trump's pick for Vice-president. There are reports that as late as midnight Trump was asking close advisors if he could change his mind. No, he couldn't. As one of the leading political scholars here in Hindtit,Indiana I've written a number of times about Mike Pence. For those of you who don't live in Indiana, you poor things, here's some thoughts. Mike Pence was running for re-election to be Governor another four years. He was in all likelihood going to lose to Democratic former Speaker of the House John Gregg, the man he barely beat in 2012. The Indiana Republican Party was very nervous and hoping that Pence would be tapped for V.P., Pence was also hoping. Let's recap the Pence trajectory. He was a conservative talk radio host in Indiana who spun that notoriety into a twelve year stint in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he ultimately rose to a party leadership role. Here's what he didn...

Donald Trump is looking for a Vice-president. Given the overall stink which surrounds him you might think it would be tough to find someone, but it won't be. The lure of being President in waiting since Trump's helter skelter brain could potentially lead to his removal from office, is just too great. Lots of auditions are taking place, just like a reality show. I'm hoping for Gary Busey. Over the weekend the three names being heavily discussed, which means Trump himself leaked it to the press, is Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich and Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Let's start with Governor Christie. He's hated in his home state of New Jersey, he can't run again and wouldn't win anyway. He's effectively finished in elective politics so he would absolutely jump at the opportunity, he has nothing to lose. He also doesn't really bring  things to the ticket that Trump needs. Christie is smart but would be wasted as V.P. Like trump he's a loudmouth bully a...

I'm recouping from surgery and trying to convince myself that I have in fact been under anesthesia for the past year, alas that's not the case. Donald Trump stomped his opponents last week and is indeed poised to be the Republican nominee. A candidate who has openly stated he would use nuclear weapons, a statement which would have destroyed any Presidential hopeful throughout the nuclear age. Yet millions of Republican primary voters are drawn to him like a moth to the flame oblivious to the burn yet to come. He delivered a forty-five minute foreign policy speech that was supposed to be impressive and demonstrate his new serious campaign. It was scripted and yes, read from a teleprompter. The same device Trump has continually criticized and said politicians shouldn't use. The speech was absolute gibberish, revealing no understanding of foreign affairs or laying out specific policy initiatives. It was torn directly from the isolation 101 handbook with America first thrown i...

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of your corn hole, this happened. The Indiana Pastor's Alliance accused Pence and other Republican leaders of betraying Christians by fixing the R.F.R.A. They claim the fix discriminates against Christians and that it is now a "gay rights bill". This according to Alliance Executive Director Rob Johnson. House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President David Long have both dismissed the allegations that the legislature has damaged religious liberty. Philip's Temple pastor Carl Kelly said former Republican Senator Richard Lugar didn't serve the needs of conservatives , including the tea party and he paid the price. Kelly said if Indiana failed to enact a stronger RFRA law, the same thing might happen to Pence. Dick Lugar's conservative bona fides were never in question among those with any common sense. What certain people couldn't tolerate was the fact that he knew public policy is only accomplished through neg...

The Indiana General Assembly, working faster than it ever has, added language to the Freedom of Religion Act stating it cannot be used as a defense for discriminating against anyone including the LGBT community. It's a few more words than I just noted but those are the essentials.  The law was sent to Governor Pence who signed it behind closed doors with no media allowed. He then left for Europe. It's no surprise that he didn't want to be seen signing the law because he didn't want to do it.  In his opinion millions of people, including corporate C.E.O.'s are too stupid to read and understand what we just read. We are not able to connect the dots. It's a given that most politicians consider their constituents less than bright and sometimes they're right. But it's not politically wise to show such contempt. Pence and his allies in the legislature truly don't get it. Society is moving forward with or without them. It is time for Indiana to take the n...

Indiana Governor Mike Pence has signed the Freedom of Religion Act into law. An intense last minute push from business and religious leaders could not sway him from this path. Even the very real possibility that the producers of the GenCon convention, which brings in 50 million dollars a year to the economy of Indianapolis, had no impact on the Governor. The Governor and his super majority party just don't get it. There will be serious economic repercussions as a result of their actions. Pence is trying to minimize the controversy by blaming the media, a classic right wing tactic. It doesn't hold water here in Indiana where the media has covered the story like it was a PTA bake sale. The reporting was done in brief snippets and hardly over the top. The Governor says that people misunderstand the law, he says it's about protecting religious rights from government interference. Apparently he needs to reread the U.S. Constitution which already covers that. He also says that t...