medical news

Fauci is no Mengele

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Unbelievable.

That’s how I’ll start with this brief post about something I heard on — where else? — Fox News.

Lara Logan, a supposed journalist, compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the notorious Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, who during World War II conducted hideous experiments on Jews. Mengele’s aim was to perfect ghastly treatments and he used Jews as experimental patients. Many of those patients died from the experiments.

Logan somehow, in some fashion, conflated the mask and vaccine mandates enacted to fight to COVID-19 pandemic with what Mengele did during the Second World War.

What makes this idiocy even worse is that the Fox News anchors allowed her to continue that trash rant of hers without challenging what in the name of human decency she was alleging.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/12/02/fauci_im_astounded_fox_news_has_not_disciplined_lara_logan_for_comparing_me_to_mengele.html

You can see it on the link I just attached to this post.

Good Almighty God in heaven! What in the world is it going to take to shut down these hate mongers who do nothing but slander and defame the reputations of learned professionals who are trying to help this nation get through a medical crisis?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Silence is destructive

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When a member of Congress spewed hate speech about another member of Congress, there once was a time when the leadership of the offending members’ caucus would call him or her down hard, informing that lawmaker that such speech is unacceptable.

Not any longer. Oh, no. These days, political leadership — notably on the Republican side of the great divide — remains silent. You hear the proverbial crickets chirping in the House and Senate chambers. Politicians from the opposing party often rise up and rant loudly.

The latest pair of congressional members to square off are Republican Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Democrat Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Boebert compared Omar’s occasionally harsh rhetoric to the kind of trash that comes out of the mouths of terrorists. Oh, of course Rep. Boebert had to inject “Muslim” into the tirade because, well, Rep. Omar happens to be a faithful Muslim; Omar is a native of Somalia who emigrated to the United States when she was a teenager. Her parents came here looking for a better life. They found it and their daughter became a member of Congress after becoming a naturalized American citizen.

Boebert is part of the QAnon cabal of House members who have latched onto some of hideous notions put forth by that mystery movement.

She appears to hate Ilhan Omar’s faith and in expressing her extreme view that Muslims are inherently sympathetic to terrorist acts, she has engaged in a form of hate speech that in an earlier time never would have been given credence by the silence of her party’s political leadership.

We do have two living former Republican presidents: George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump. Bush has been vocal over many years to demand decency from his caucus. Trump, though, has remained silent.

Indeed, Trump’s followers in the current Congress far outnumber those who are loyal to Bush. Thus, we have the silent treatment greeting the kinds of hate speech that comes from Boebert … and others within the GOP.

We just have to find a way to repair the quality of our discourse and to hold politicians accountable for the garbage that flows too easily from their mouths.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Yes, try the kid as an adult

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It boggles my mind at times why officials have to haggle for a long time about whether to try a juvenile as an adult when he allegedly commits the kind of crime that occurred the other day in Oxford, Mich.

Four people are dead after a high school student opened fire. The student is in custody. Three of the fatal victims dies on the day of the shooting; the fourth one died just today. Many more victims were injured.

I get that the suspect is a juvenile, but damn, the boy is charged with committing a grievous act of violence on other students.

Authorities are keeping him segregated from the adults in jail. I am OK with that. I also am OK with keeping underage convicts who are tried as adults away from the grownups in the slammer.

However, the penalty for a conviction on the crime that this individual is alleged to have committed should be the maximum provided to adults, not to minors. He is accused of committing a heinous act and if he is convicted, he needs to do the time required under the law … as an adult.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Roe v. Wade in trouble?

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My gut is rumbling, my trick knee is throbbing and I don’t like the feel of any of it as I ponder what might occur down the road with the U.S. Supreme Court’s pending decision on whether to restrict abortion.

Justices have heard from both sides in a Mississippi case involving a law that bans abortion after 15 weeks or pregnancy. It’s not as strict as Texas’s ban after six weeks, but is way more restrictive than the Roe vs. Wade decision that is at the heart of all this talk.

Roe is the case involving a Texas woman who filed suit in 1973 over abortion. The SCOTUS then issued its landmark ruling that legalized abortion, saying it is protected under the U.S. Constitution’s right of privacy provision.

Roe is being challenged directly and the chatter today suggests that the high court, with its 6 to 3 conservative majority is poised to limit abortion — if not make it illegal.

Oh, brother. No matter what the court decides, I am going to proclaim that it won’t end abortion. Women will continue to get them by any means necessary, which makes a potential ban on the practice so dangerous.

I consider myself to be pro-life, which I don’t believe supersedes my equally held belief that government should not dictate how a woman can manage her body. Could I counsel a woman to get an abortion? Absolutely, categorically and unquestionably no! However, nor do I believe that anyone in government has any right to tell a woman she must carry a baby to full term.

The Texas law makes no exception for a woman impregnated by a rapist or during an incestuous encounter. If there is anything more cruel and inhumane than that, I have trouble determining what that would be.

Well, the SCOTUS justices now are going to keep their own counsel on this matter. I want them to uphold Roe vs. Wade. I do not expect them to do so. If they allow Roe to be dismantled, then my fellow Americans, we’d all better prepare ourselves for many stories of utter misery, pain and heartache as women end their pregnancies through means that can do them irreparable harm.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Not just any ol’ pine tree

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Oh, how my aging noodle can fly into fits of remembrance at the oddest times, doing the most seemingly insignificant chores.

It happened to me today as my bride and I were running errands.

We stopped at the neighborhood grocery store. We walked past a display of table-top Norfolk pines. She said she needed something to make her “feel better,” as she had been under the weather the past few days.

My mind immediately kicked back 25 years to the day we closed on the house we just had built in Amarillo. The closing date was actually Dec. 22, 1996, which was the day we began moving in. We obtained a rental truck and emptied the storage unit where we had kept most of our belongings for nearly two years.

One of the items we had kept close to us was a potted Norfolk pine we had moved with us from Beaumont. As we began assembling the possessions in our new home, we found a stash of Christmas decorations. The tree we used? The Norfolk pine. It stood about 4 feet tall; its branches were full and quite wide. It was able to hold plenty of lights and a few ornaments.

So … we decked out the tree with lights and a few of our favorite keepsake ornaments.

We had dozens of boxes strewn about our home, containing unpacked possessions. None of that mattered. What mattered to us was that we were able to celebrate Christmas with a tree, a few gifts thrown around its base and with each other all gathered around looking proudly at the home we had watched built from the ground up.

That’s what I remember at this moment as I look at the tiny version of our first Christmas tree in the house we called home for more than two decades.

I’ll get back to more serious musings … eventually. Today, I am full of The Spirit.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Cuomo crosses the line

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Blood surely is thicker than company loyalty, but CNN anchor Chris Cuomo faces a stern reckoning for helping his brother while working for a major cable television news network.

Cuomo is the brother of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned earlier this year after several women accused him of sexual harassment and assorted acts of sexual assault.

CNN announced that Chris Cuomo would be suspended indefinitely essentially for lying to his employers about the extent of the advice he was giving his brother while he still held the governor’s office.

No can do, said CNN.

According to CNN.com: “When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly,” the spokesperson continued. “But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second.” However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew,” the spokesperson added. “As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”

CNN suspends Chris Cuomo indefinitely – CNN

Journalists have a solemn obligation to keep their distance from developing stories. Cuomo violated that obligation. I get that he loves his brother and that he is loyal to his family.

However, he also is an international media star, known and trusted by viewers to report the news ostensibly without bias or personal involvement in the outcome of an event.

Accordingly, CNN acted prudently in suspending Chris Cuomo, who clearly crossed a line that separates newsmakers from those who report on an issue that has gotten the newsmaker into trouble.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Terrorist threat comes from within

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All this chatter about Islamic terrorists and the “threat” they supposedly pose to Americans ignores a key point made in 2019 by the director of the FBI.

Christopher Wray, appointed to his post by Donald J. Trump, told Congress that the “biggest threat” to Americans’ security and safety comes not from foreign terrorists, but from the home-grown, corn-fed variety of domestic terrorist.

Wray offered that analysis, of course, prior to the events of 1/6 and the domestic terror attack launched against Capitol Hill, where Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the Electoral College vote certification from the 2020 presidential election.

All of those yahoos were from right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Yet we hear from nut jobs such as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., say that one of her colleagues, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is cozy with terrorist groups. Indeed, Boebert implied that Omar might be a terrorist herself, given that she’s a Muslim who emigrated to this country from Somalia.

Let’s keep our eye on the ball, shall we? FBI Director Wray is correct to suggest that the larger threat comes from within.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Big Lie gets even weirder

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I never thought it was possible to embellish The Big Lie but the Republican nut cases who occupy public offices have managed to do so.

It goes like this …

There are those within the GOP who contend now that Democrats are fabricating the impact of various COVID-19 variants to “cheat” their way to winning future elections. One of the Republican nut jobs in Congress, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo, went on Fox News to suggest that very thing. The hosts on “Fox and Friends” let the moronic physician-turned-politician mutter that trash without challenging him.

One of the hosts said Jackson is “probably right.” Umm, no! He’s not right! He is wrong. So are those who suggest that the impact of the latest variant, called Omicron, is made up, that it’s a fabrication.

The Big Lie was born out of Donald Trump’s phony claim of “widespread voter fraud” in the 2020 election. It has now grown more legs and to my utter horror it is beginning to take root in the gullible mindlessness of Republican cultists’ noggins.

Good grief. Is there no end to this idiocy?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

POTUS tells us: do not panic

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Message received, Mr. President.

Joe Biden went on TV this morning to tell us the Omicron variant that began in southern Africa but which is working its way around the world provides no reason to panic.

He said we have to do the same things we have done to suppress the original COVID-19 virus and the assorted variants of the virus that have sprung up. Omicron is no different, President Biden said.

I hear ya, Mr. POTUS. My hope is that we all hear the president. That we all do the things we need to do to keep the virus variant from spreading. You know what they are, so I won’t belabor the point here.

I remain an eternal optimist that we are going to weather this matter. The timing of when we get the all-clear signal remains an open question.

No worries as far as my family and I are concerned. We aren’t waiting with bated breath for someone to tell us we’re in the clear from the virus. We are going to stay with the good-practices recommendations and do our part to put this virus — and the variants — down for keeps.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news

What about the debt, lawmakers?

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Congressional Republicans have this bizarre habit of backing themselves into corners from which they have difficulty exiting.

They are digging in once again on the issue of increasing the nation’s debt ceiling. U.S. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell — yeah, that guy — is threatening to shut ‘er down. He won’t back any effort by Democrats to increase the debt ceiling.

What does that mean? Total calamity, according to every serious economist on Earth. It would mark the first time the U.S. of A. has defaulted on its debt. It would throw the markets into total free fall. It would send a signal around the world that the United States no longer can be trusted to make good on its obligations.

Hey, is this what they call an “America first” priority?

It’s an “America last” notion, if you want my opinion on it. You didn’t ask for it, but I offered it anyway.

What are we going to do when the nation’s government funding expires at the end of the week? We had better beat some reason into the thick skulls of GOP lawmakers who don’t want to make many millions of Americans angry over their stubbornness.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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