military news, national news

Always revere the office

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s no secret that I am delighted beyond measure to be rid of Donald Trump and I welcome a new president of the United States.

President Biden has taken a firm grip on the levers of power and for that I am grateful. However, I want to share a brief story that involves in a tangential way the man Biden succeeded as president.

My wife and I vacationed in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 2017. We visited our niece and her husband. We spent several days walking around the city with them, enjoying the sights and sounds of our nation’s capital.

We were strolling through Georgetown when I heard a helicopter flying overhead. I looked up. It was Marine One, the military chopper that carries the president of the United States. Donald Trump had traveled somewhere and was returning at that moment aboard the helicopter to the White House.

I must acknowledge a certain thrill at seeing Marine One passing over us, even as it carried the detestable individual who had moved into the White House earlier that year.

This is my way of expressing my reverence for the presidency. I have expressed already in this forum my love of pageantry, of the pomp and circumstance that accompanies the office and the person who occupies it.

True story, but the thrill at seeing Marine One en route to the White House did not diminish one little bit on that lovely summer day.

This is my way of suggesting that the office is far larger and important than any individual who sits behind that big desk in the Oval Office.

medical news

Frustration? Yes, but there’s an end to it

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I feel the need to offer a note of frustration in dealing with obtaining a vaccine shot to fend off the COVID-19 virus.

We are on different inoculation tracks in our house. I received my first vaccine shot from the North Texas Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dallas; I’ll get my second shot in a few days.

My wife is getting her first vaccine dose later this week. She is obtaining hers through one of Collin County’s vaccination “hubs,” at John Carter Stadium in Plano, Texas. She’ll be there, get her shot and then we’ll return home.

My frustration dealt with trying to talk to a living, breathing human being at the Collin County Health Department. I couldn’t connect with a living person as I sought to clarify an issue that needed immediate attention.

We got two phone calls today from Collin County. The first one dealt with my appointment at Carter Stadium; we had registered with the county wait list and today our names came up. I sought to call the county back to tell someone that I didn’t need to report for my vaccine; the Department of Veterans Affairs has me covered. I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could clarify the issue.

The second call came about 30 minutes later. The recorded voice told me that my wife had been scheduled at the stadium on the same day I was supposed to report. Fine. Good deal. She’s in!

I am well aware that our health agencies are facing intense pressure to answer questions from anxious Americans. I tend to get hyper-anxious when I cannot obtain answers in a timely, efficient fashion. I am not leveling blame at anyone. I merely am expressing a level of frustration linked directly to the potential consequence of something slipping through the cracks.

We’re dealing straight on with a virus that has killed far north of 400,000 Americans. My most sincere aim is to get answers quickly from fellow human beings who get paid to provide them.

There. Rant over. We’re taking one step at a time toward protecting ourselves from this killer. I believe the frustration will subside.

national news

Is this trial different? Yes … here’s why

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The men and women who will prosecute the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump have filed their legal brief in advance of that process.

It states, in part: “The Nation will indeed remember January 6, 2021 — and President Trump’s singular responsibility for that tragedy. It is impossible to imagine the events of January 6 occurring without President Trump creating a powder keg, striking a match, and then seeking personal advantage from the ensuing havoc.”

READ: House Impeachment Managers Outline Case Against Trump : NPR

My head and my heart are conflicting with each other as the nation prepares to witness this spectacle unfold. My heart desires a conviction, even though Donald Trump no longer is in office. He needs to be held accountable for inciting that horrifying riot.

My noggin tells me something different. It is that the House managers who will prosecute this case will be speaking to a “jury” that has made up its mind. Fifty Senate Democrats want to convict the former president; some of the 50 Republicans may join them, but not enough of them will cross that threshold to deliver a conviction.

The Constitution sets a high bar, requiring a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict a president.

So, why is this trial different from the first trial that acquitted him on abuse of power and obstruction of justice? It is different because the crime Trump committed on Jan. 6 had a direct impact on the jurors, the senators who will be sitting in judgment.

Trump incited the rioting mob to march on Capitol Hill. The terrorists did as he stated. They stormed into the Capitol Building, where senators and House members were meeting to certify the results of the 2020 election. Senators and House members were sent scurrying; they feared for their very lives!

How in the name of sanity does someone give a pass to someone who incited that kind of violence when it could have resulted in catastrophe for those who will pass judgment? You cannot!

Trump has assembled a new defense team; the first one quit because of differences with the client over trial strategy. The new team will argue that the Senate lacks standing to try a president who isn’t in office. This layman believes that argument is so much crap!

This trial should be dramatically different from the first one. If there exist enough Republican senators with a sense of moral outrage over what happened on the very floor where they will hear this case, then there well could be a vastly different outcome.

Sadly, I fear that the cowards among the GOP caucus are going to win the day.

military news

Transgender patriots welcomed back into uniform

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden’s stash of pens is getting a workout as he enters the Oval Office and begins righting some of the decisions delivered by his immediate predecessor.

Biden signed an executive order that restores transgender Americans’ right to serve in the military. Donald Trump nixed that notion with an earlier executive order.

President Biden has realized what we all know, which is that patriotism lives in the hearts of all Americans regardless of their sexual orientation of gender identity.

I am glad to see the president welcome back those who have changed their gender but still want to defend the nation against its enemies and protect our national security.

My own military service occurred long ago, from 1968 to 1970. For the life of me I have no memory of encountering anyone back then during my Army service who were born as someone other than who they were when we served. Then again, such gender-change medical procedures weren’t as refined as they have become in the decades since.

Whatever, my point is that gender identity shouldn’t be an issue for anyone other than the individual who has sought to change his or her gender.

Transgender patriots are every bit as qualified to serve their country in uniform as anyone else.

national news

Will cowardice prevail?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The evidence, some circumstantial and some of it tangible, keeps piling up.

Donald Trump is looking more each day like someone who incited a coup d’ etat against the U.S. government.

His allies in both congressional chambers are now admitting to being duped into thinking Trump would concede the 2020 election if he lost. Then he actually lost it bigly to President Biden and he then challenged the outcome of the vote. He called it rigged; he trotted out phony vote fraud allegations.

McConnell: Trump Tricked Me Into Backing His Coup (nymag.com)

Then came the events of the Sixth of January. He exhorted the mob of terrorists/rioters to march on Capitol Hill and “take back” the government. The terrorists attacked with force.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump a week later. He now is preparing to stand trial in the Senate even though he no longer is in office.

The question keeps boiling up: Will the Senate Republican caucus muster up the guts to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection or will it hide behind the dubious defense that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office?

I await the outcome with a keen eye and ear.

national news

Let’s clear this up

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Folks, we need to clear up a thing or three about the U.S. Senate trial that awaits us next week.

Donald Trump’s legal team is arguing that the trial is unconstitutional because a former president cannot be impeached. Hold on, ladies and gentlemen!

Donald Trump vacated the U.S. presidency on Jan. 20. The House of Representatives impeached him a week earlier, on Jan. 13. The impeachment occurred one week after Trump incited a riotous mob to storm Capitol Hill, seeking to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify that President Biden won the 2020 election.

House Democrats Make Case for Convicting Trump (msn.com)

Do you see where I’m going with this? Talk of impeaching a “former president” misses the mark by a Texas mile. The House did not impeach someone who had already left office; Trump was still in office when the House delivered the “yes” vote on impeachment.

So, let us remove impeachment from the discussion. It was done legally and constitutionally.

What’s at stake is the Senate trial, which is a separate quasi-legal/political function.

What does the Constitution say about that? It says that the Senate has the sole authority to put a president on trial. A conviction can result in no punishment greater than removal from office, the document notes; that means, as I read it, that it can convict a former president and can establish in a separate vote whether that individual should be barred from seeking public office in the future.

Let us cease conflating impeachment with the trial. The first event has happened. The second one will commence soon.

national news

Compromise anyone?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s see how this plays out.

President Biden wants Congress to approve a $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that kicks out more money for families and helps educators, while speeding up the vaccinations aimed at killing the pandemic.

Congressional Republicans want a $618 billion package that is more “targeted” for specific needs.

Here’s a thought. Why not meet in the middle? Congress could approve a $1.2 trillion package, which is just about the mid point between the president’s pitch and the counter offer from the GOP.

Isn’t that what effective legislation is all about? Compromise, anyone?

DC riot, national news

Dad would be enraged!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You know already that my father wasn’t a particularly political individual.

Pete Kanelis and I did not talk much about politics, or even much about current events. Dad didn’t have an attention span that would allow him to digest the complexities and nuance of public policy.

He did, though, believe deeply in this country. He loved the U.S. of A. He was a patriot’s patriot. Dad signed up to fight in World War II on the very day that the Japanese attacked our fleet in Hawaii.

Dad spent the bulk of his combat duty fighting the Germans and the Italians in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations … which brings me to what Dad would have thought had he seen the terrorists who attacked the Capitol Building on the Sixth of January.

My father would have flown into a frothing rage at the sight of the t-shirt that bellowed “Camp Auschwitz.”

Dad knew who the enemy was when he suited up for the Navy. He endured constant bombardment from Nazi fighters and bombers while serving in the Med. He also knew that Adolf Hitler was a tyrant and a demon who needed to be crushed. Dad did his level best while he was thrust in harm’s way to crush that monster.

Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi death camp, didn’t become known to Americans until nearly the end of World War II. Dad certainly knew then the nature of the beast he enlisted to fight.

I cannot help but think of the anger that would boil up inside him had he been around to witness the insurrection we all saw unfold … and the nature of the morons who ransacked the seat of our democracy while wearing an emblem that salutes Auschwitz. 

education news, local news, State news

Bill takes aim at in-state tuition

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A couple of North Texas freshmen legislators don’t like the idea of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.

I believe they are mistaken if they think the state is going to reap a reward by making it difficult for young Texas residents to achieve higher education degrees.

State Reps. Bryan Slaton of Royse City and Jeff Cason of Bedford — both Republicans — have proposed a bill that would allow colleges to determine a student’s residence and decide whether they qualify for in-state tuition.

I will interject that two other Texas Republican politicians of considerable note — Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry — endorsed the idea of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition. Why? Because both of them recognized the value that college educations bring to the state, even when some of its residents lack the necessary immigration documents.

Bush, Perry are right about in-state tuition issue | High Plains Blogger

I don’t know what Gov. Greg Abbott would do with a bill if it reaches his desk. I am wishing he would veto it.

This legislation falls into the “heartless” category of lawmaking. It seeks to target Texas residents who are seeking to improve their circumstance by attending higher education institutions. Given that they do reside in Texas, they have — in my humble estimation — earned the right to attend these schools as Texas residents.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Texans’ tax dollars should not be used to reward and encourage illegal immigration to our state and nation,” Cason said in a statement.

Texas lawmakers want to block in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants | The Texas Tribune

Maybe I am slow on the uptake, but I am having a bit of difficulty understanding how allowing these students to pay in-state tuition constitutes a Texas taxpayer subsidy, or how it encourages “illegal immigration to our state and nation.”

President Biden already has restored the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program for those undocumented immigrants who were brought here by their parents. Many of those DACA recipients are enrolled in Texas public colleges and universities. They might be deemed unable to continue their education if Slaton and Cason’s bill becomes law.

This law deserves the fate that a 2019 effort met. It failed to come out of the House Higher Education Committee. I hope this notion withers and dies, too.

national news

Time to ‘move on’? Not just yet!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Republicans in Congress want to “move on” from the events of the Sixth of January. They are calling now for “unity” in the nation, that Americans do not want to see Donald Trump put on trial for inciting an insurrection against the government of this great nation.

I don’t think I will move on. Nor should any of us put the horrendous events of that terrible incident behind us. We need a full, thorough hearing on what the nation witnessed in real time and the U.S. Senate needs to put all its members on record on whether they believe Donald Trump committed a crime on that momentous day.

The Senate is preparing to conduct the second impeachment trial on Donald Trump’s conduct as president. The Senate acquitted him in early 2020 on charges of abuse of power and of obstruction of Congress.

Now comes this event. To my way of thinking, what Donald Trump did on Jan. 6 was tantamount to launching an attempt coup against the government. The terrorist mob marched on Capitol Hill with many terrorists intent on harming Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Their “crime”? They were presiding over Congress’s sworn duty to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won.

Is it really time to “move on” from this incident? Do we just throw up our hands and say that none of it matters any longer just because Trump is no longer in office? Good God in heaven, no!

I say this understanding that Trump is likely to walk away once again with an acquittal. That outcome will cause me some internal grief, but I’ll get over it.

There must be a full hearing of what Trump did that day. What the mobsters did in response to his egging them on. The consequences of what could have occurred had they achieved their stated aim of overturning a free and fair election.

They attacked our democratic process.

Once we hear it all, every detail of it, only then can we move on.

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience