national news

Don’t weaponize ‘patriotism’

Patriot” is not a word that ever should be used as a campaign weapon, as a slogan, or as a cheap throwaway line to appeal to political fanatics. Same can be said for “patriotism.”

However, I am typing this brief blog post because I am infuriated at what has become of those two terms that I happen to take far more seriously than I do any politician’s desire to use them to his or her advantage.

You know who I am talking about, yes? If not, I’ll explain. I am talking about the far-right wingers out there, adherents to the cult created by The Donald. The promoters of The Big Lie. The morons who stormed the Capitol Building on 1/6 and beat police officers senseless while proclaiming themselves to be “patriots” loyal to an insurrection that sought to subvert American democracy.

I say all this as a proud American patriot. I believe I am the real thing, not some made-up figment of a cult leader’s delusional view of himself. I have been married to the same woman for 50 years. I pay my taxes regularly. I am a proud Army veteran who went to war for my country. I choke up at the sound of marching bands playing the National Anthem.

I also abhor the notion that The Donald’s cabal of fruitcakes, kooks and nut jobs can pretend to be patriots and usurp the true meaning of the term for their own perverted world view.

Far-right candidates for public office throw the terms “patriot” and “patriotism” around like any cheap political slogan or jingle. Let me be crystal clear: It pisses me off! Royally!

So … one’s proclamation of their “love of country” is nothing on which they should base a cheap slogan. In the current political climate, I am quite certain any politician who proclaims their patriotism in an effort to win my vote is more than likely going to lose it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Warmongers beware!

Our world is full of too many warmongers who either have no appreciation of the brutality of war’s insanity or who — to put it bluntly — just don’t a crap about any of it.

Count me as one who (a) does appreciate the brutality of war and (b) gives a serious crap about its consequences.

Russian troops and tanks are battling with Ukrainian troops and tanks over who should run Ukraine, an independent nation that borders Russia and much of the rest of eastern Europe. I am baffled to the max over criticism from the far right over President Biden’s response to the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For my money — and this is just me speaking — I believe the president has reacted appropriately. And yet there are those who say we should “do more” to defend Ukraine. That would be what, precisely? Send in the jet fighters? Join in defending a no-fly zone over much of Ukraine, which I should add is an act of war all by itself? Send in the thousands of troops we have deployed to Poland to fight the Russians hand to hand?

The array of economic sanctions this country has imposed on Russia will deliver serious pain to the strongman Vladimir Putin and his oligarch pals and allies. We have essentially choked off Russia from the rest of the Free World’s banking system. Joe Biden has declared there will be no Russian aircraft allowed in U.S. airspace. Our allies in western Europe have shut off the fossil fuel pipeline from Russia; yes, we already are paying the price for that with increasing energy prices.

The Russians have a lot of very deadly weapons in stock. We do, too. We aren’t going to use them on the Russians, nor will they use them on us. The “mutually assured destruction” policy has been dredged up and returned to the top shelf, as it would be pure MADness to start hurling nukes at each other.

The warmongers out there need to take a breather and let these economic sanctions play out. They’re already bringing plenty of pain to Putin and his cabal of thugs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Trying to figure Putin out

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

It’s a challenge in the extreme to put oneself into Vladimir Putin’s skull or into what passes for the Russian dictator’s heart. I have sought to inject myself into both places, but I cannot find my way into or out of either of them.

So … I am left only to wonder what goes through his noggin or that thing he calls a heart.

Putin is now a worldwide pariah. At least in most of the world. He’s got his friends in China, Belarus, Syria, Iran and North Korea. The remainder of Earth’s civilized world is aghast, appalled and astonished at the invasion he launched against Ukraine.

The madman is bombing cities and inflicting deliberate harm to civilians. When was the last time that happened in open warfare? World War II? The Germans and Japanese started that fight, but the rest of the world finished it. I concede openly that our side brought terrible suffering to civilians, too. And, yes, terrorist organizations around the world have done the same thing in the decades since the end of WWII.

The flashback has returned in real time in Ukraine.

What does someone such as Putin think when he reads that his standing among world leaders has sunk to such depths? Does it bother him? Does it inject in him any sense of reason, or any sort of shame that he has done this to innocent victims while bringing shame to himself and his country?

I suppose it’s becoming clear that Putin wants to swallow up Ukraine. French President Emanuel Macron reportedly has said that is Putin’s precise goal, to conquer the whole country and bring it back into the Russian fold or, at the very least, install a puppet government in Kyiv to do his bidding.

The rest of us are left to offer prayers for Ukrainians and their leaders while also sending intensely bad karma to Putin and his thugs.

That’s all I — as an old man sitting far away in my comfortable home — can offer.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Walls close in on The Donald

Just in case The Donald suffers from claustrophobia, well … he’d better learn to deal with it as them ol’ walls are closing in on him with revelations that the House select committee looking into the 1/6 insurrection has found ample evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the 45th POTUS.

The panel has introduced evidence that suggest strongly that The Donald engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The evidence appears to be the product of emails from Trump lawyer John Eastman, who orchestrated a grand plan for The Donald to coerce other officials to flip the results of a legal election.

According to CBS.com: The filing also describes how Eastman advised Trump to “press an unconstitutional plan” and sought to persuade Vice President Pence and his advisers to go along with the effort. And the committee revealed how, as the January 6 attack at the Capitol was underway, Eastman and Pence’s lawyer traded blame over the violence. In one email, Pence’s lawyer Greg Jacob wrote, “thanks to your bull***t we are now under siege.” Eastman responded, “The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-criminal-conspiracy-house-january-6-committee/

The walls are getting mighty close to choking off The Donald. Oh, how I want to see this crook carted off. Whether it occurs, of course, remains to be realized.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news, State news

Texas turnout: a stinker

Here is how the Texas Tribune led a story about the voter turnout in this week’s midterm primary election: Around 17% of registered voters in Texas cast a ballot in the 2022 primary, according to preliminary turnout data from the secretary of state. 

The Tribune noted also that the turnout this year was greater than the six previous midterm elections. However, I now will throw a huge dose of cold water on it.

The “registered voters” barometer is a ruse. When you factor in the number of Texans who are “eligible” to vote, but who don’t even bother to register, then the turnout nosedives into the crapper.

This is a shameful exhibition of apathy that spells potential disaster for the state of governance in Texas.

Texas, tragically, is among the lowest-turnout states in the entire U.S. of A. Seventeen percent of registered voters sought fit to cast their ballots, either early or on Election Day, to choose who their party’s nominees would be for a host of important public offices.

That is fewer than one in five Texans. The percentage plunges even more when you measure the turnout of eligible voters.

So very sad.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Ukrainian president: real-life hero

I have to join the growing chorus of supporters around the world who are singing the praises of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zellenskyy.

A young man who entered politics after a career as a comic and an actor has emerged as a towering figure of strength in leading his country’s resistance against the Russian aggressors.

Heroes often are the product of the circumstances into which they are thrust. Zellenskyy didn’t ask to become a hero; it just fell on him when the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, decided he wanted to take Ukraine back, return it to the fold of the former Evil Empire. Putin acted for reasons that defy reason, logic and all that is rational.

Zellenskyy could have fled his country. He could have led a government in exile. He chose instead to stay and to lead from ground zero in the conflict.

He has risen to an enormous challenge. The Ukraine’s brave leader is made of the sternest stuff imaginable. I am going to pray hard for the president and his countrymen and women.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news, political news

GOP dynamic is baffling

I am likely to go straight to my grave never being able to comprehend the weird dynamic playing out within the Texas Republican Party in this age of The Donald and The Big Lie.

Let’s ponder for a moment some weird happenings that occurred during this past Tuesday’s March primary election.

The contest for Tarrant County judge featured two candidates, Betsy Price and Tim O’Hare, who fought tooth-and-nail for the party nomination. Sitting on the other side of the Metroplex, Price — the well-respected former Fort Worth mayor — seemed a good bet to prevail. Oh, no!

She got thumped by O’Hare, who accused her of being a “progressive” mayor who favored rules that don’t discriminate against transgender people. O’Hare then pledged to clamp down on all those hot-button issues that raise hackles among far-right conservatives: critical race theory, immigration reform, gay rights.

Then came the race for Congress in the Third House District — where my wife and I reside. Incumbent Republican Van Taylor was targeted by the far-righties within the GOP of being a traitor to the Republican cause. Keith Self, the former Collin County judge, finished second in the primary, but Taylor was set to engage Self in a May runoff … before he ended his re-election effort admitting to an affair with a Plano woman. So now it appears that Self, who believes in The Big Lie, is going to win the election this November and take his nut-job world view to Capitol Hill, where he’ll get join the likes of QAnon queens Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

The party has become a cult following. It has devolved into a once-great political organization into a cabal of kooks who won’t accept the results of a free, fair and legal presidential election, who hold out the fantasy that The Donald will run again in 2024 and actually win back the White House.

So help me Almighty God in heaven, I cannot think of a more frightening prospect than that.

And yet, we have fully grown human beings believing the sh** that flies out of The Donald’s pie hole and promise to restore some perverted version of “patriotism” to our national government.

What perhaps is most astounding of all is that not every Republican officeholder in America believes this crap, but so damn few of them are willing to speak out, stand up for the truth and call these wackos out for who they are. Who are they? They are dangerous cretins who have no business making laws or collecting taxpayers’ money.

By cracky, they’re in office and seek to cement their vise grip on the American political system by any means necessary. Just think, my family and I have ringside seats from which we are able to watch this nonsense play out.

Good grief!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news

Righteous among us tumble

My head-shaking just won’t stop in the wake of this week’s stunning announcement regarding a North Texas congressman, a self-proclaimed conservative lawmaker who — I am going to presume — was proud of his “family values.”

Republican Van Taylor ended his re-election campaign Wednesday after disclosing he had an extramarital dalliance with a Plano woman, a so-called “ISIS bride” who once was married to an officer in the Islamic State terrorist organization. Geez, that alone is enough to make me wonder about a lot of other things.

Taylor was heading for a runoff after Tuesday’s GOP primary.

What is so damn disturbing about this — actually one of many things that ought to disturb any of us — is the way Taylor characterized himself as a staunch conservative, someone who stood for strong values. The implication of those values statements is clear, that he is a devoted to his wife and children. Well, the way I see it, one’s devotion must be complete, unequivocal and unconditional.

Taylor has apologized profusely to his family and to his constituents. I am one of the latter and I will accept the apology and I will wish him well as he tries to rebuild his life. Whether he is able to rebuild his family is a matter for them to decide.

My only concern — as a Third Congressional District constituent — is that Taylor stays away from public service. I don’t want him representing my interests at any level of government. You see, I don’t much care for public officials who profess to be of a certain stripe, but who are hiding dark secrets that reveal them to be something quite different.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Idiot doc pops off

My many friends in the Texas Panhandle are represented in Congress by a man I only can describe as an idiot. Yes. His idiocy is on display multiple times daily via his Twitter account.

Here is what Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo said after President Biden delivered his initial State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Biden’s “State of Confusion” is EMBARRASSING! He’s SLURRING his words! RT if you miss the days when the White House wasn’t an assisted living facility

This is the moron who offers diagnosis of Joe Biden’s mental acuity from afar.

I now want to remind this doofus — aka Ronny Jackson — of something about President Biden.

Joe Biden suffered from a debilitating stutter when he was a boy. He worked hard to cure himself of the condition. I can tell Jackson — who once served as a presidential physician to Barack Obama and Donald Trump — that one never really exterminates the condition. I speak from experience. I stuttered badly (at times) when I was a boy. I have powered through most of it.

For Ronny Jackson to offer this moronic observation about the president reveals several things about him. One is his ignorance. Another is his lack of compassion. Yet another is his crassness.

Any physician with a hint of ethical understanding never would say such a thing about a fellow human being.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Tragedy playing out in real time

I am sitting in my comfortable North Texas home while consuming the news pouring out of Ukraine and I am astonished at the sight of Russian bombs and rockets blowing civilian structures to smithereens.

Casualty counts? How many civilians are dying? How many of those civilians, moreover, are children?

Does this remind you of World War II? The conflict that leveled cities in Europe and Asia is now being re-played in real time in Ukraine.

Then we have Russian goon/strongman Vladmir Putin orchestrating a frontal assault on a sovereign nation and we learn that the early stages of the invasion are going badly for the Russians. Putin reportedly wanted to storm across the countryside and into the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. The convoy of trucks, tanks and assorted big guns is stuck. Meanwhile, Ukrainians are preparing to fight the Russian invaders to the death when they reach Kyiv.

This is a nightmare playing out 24/7 in front of the whole world.

I thought the kind of assault we are witnessing on our TV screens was a relic of the past. Silly me. It’s happening right now and it is a development that is fraught with extreme danger.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience