national news

Yep, it’s personal!

(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Readers of this blog have long understood that I loathe Donald Trump. I loathe him because of his fundamental unfitness for the job he is about to vacate, for the way he has conducted himself before and during the time he became a politician.

It’s not ideological.

For starters, I don’t consider myself to be an ideologue. I have fashioned my political view in good-government terms, which suggests that I favor compromise over rigid ideology.

More to the point, I don’t consider Trump to be an ideologue, either. He is a panderer. Trump, though, is a clumsy panderer. He just isn’t very good at it. He is inartful, inarticulate, inept. Trump is as Sen. Mitt Romney described in 2016: a “phony” and a “fraud.”

All this is my way of saying that I welcome anxiously the moment U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts extends his hand to Joe Biden and says, “Congratulations, Mr. President.”

I am weary of the constant chaos that Trump has delivered during the past four years; I am sick and tired of this individual’s constant effort to take credit he doesn’t deserve; I am flabbergasted that he lies continually, incessantly and with no hesitation.

Even more than that I am astounded and amazed that the core of Trumpkins who continue to support this individual give him a pass on the lying. It’s as if the lies he tells have become some form of “truth” to their tone-deaf ears.

My hope for the new president is that he will spare us the constant Twitter tirade, the lying, the chaos that have been the signature of the president who is about to leave the White House for the final time. Truth be told, I hope he’s left it already for the final time, given that he and his wife are in Florida soaking up the sun and lounging in luxury while the nation suffers from the pandemic.

I am heartened and relieved we are soon to be spared the dangerous behavior of someone who in a more normal political environment would have been laughed off the political stage.

I am waiting for your arrival, President Biden.

national news

Don’t let up on ‘former president’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

In normal times I would be inclined to not be terribly concerned about the legal troubles of a politician who is about to leave the public stage.

These aren’t normal times. The soon-to-be former pol happens to be someone who is leaving the office he inherited in complete shambles. Donald Trump, that would be you … you dolt, you seditious provocateur!

I don’t believe President Biden needs to unleash the federal hounds in pursuit of whatever crimes that Trump might have committed. However, the 45th POTUS is in serious danger of being targeted by state and local prosecutors who are probing plenty of issues related to the individual’s use of campaign money.

Donald Trump’s de facto attorney, Attorney General William Barr, covered Trump’s ample backside before he had enough and resigned this past week.

We now have a district attorney in Manhattan, New York City, who is loosing his own legal hounds in pursuit of plenty of questions regarding hush money payments to women with whom he had trysts.

Trump’s efforts to subvert our democratic process just fills me with enough rage to actually hope that the Manhattan DA delivers the goods on the moral reprobate who is about to leave office.

Whether he actually pardons himself successfully, Trump’s presidential pardon power means nothing where it regards prosecutions that occur outside the federal realm.

Go for it, Manhattan prosecutors. Let’s see what you have!

local news

Constable office produces intrigue

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There well might be a bit of intrigue building in what usually would be considered an obscure elected office in Collin County, Texas.

But these ain’t normal times … you know?

Mike “Mookie” Vance was scheduled to take office in January as the Precinct 1 constable for the rapidly growing county. Then he died suddenly. So, who did the Commissioners Court appoint to succeed him as constable until 2022, when the next election rolls around? The fellow he thumped in this past spring’s Republican Party primary, Constable Shane Williams, who was running for re-election.

Vance pulled in 62 percent of the vote to Williams’s 38 percent total. Vance beat Williams by 24 percentage points!

I should state at this point that I am acquainted casually with Williams. I don’t know him well but I was led to believe from other mutual acquaintances that he performed his constable duties honorably.

For reasons that I do not yet know, Republican voters in Precinct 1 didn’t think he was doing good enough of a job to keep him. So they booted him out in the primary.

The vacancy occurred suddenly when Vance died. County commissioners faced a quandary. They interviewed three other candidates, but selected Williams … the guy who lost the GOP primary!

The appointment was itself a bit of a clumsy affair, from what I have gathered. Commissioner Susan Fletcher made a motion to appoint Williams; the motion died for a lack of a second on the court. County Judge Chris Hill asked Fletcher to repeat her motion; she did and Hill offered a second. Commissioners then voted unanimously to appoint Williams.

Which makes me go … huh?

As the Allen American reported: “I think everyone was just wondering if there was going to be any other motions made,” Commissioner Darrell Hale said.

Hale said Williams was the best choice for the job but declined to expand on why.

I believe Darrell Hale ought to explain why Williams was the best of the bunch being considered. He also ought to explain how to justify putting someone back into an office who voters from his very own party had pretty soundly rejected when they had the chance to keep him on the job.

Longtime readers of this blog may recall that I think little of the constable’s office in the first place. I consider it to be superfluous, given that its duties can be performed by municipal and other county law enforcement employees.

This appointment surely is a noggin-scratcher.

national news

Let the game begin in the Senate … ridiculous

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Josh Hawley has just tossed his hat into a mythical ring signifying a campaign for Dipsh** of the Year in the U.S. Senate.

Hawley is a freshman Missouri Republican who has announced his intention to challenge President-elect Biden’s victory in the just completed election. Hawley’s intention is to force a debate on whether there is widespread voter fraud, the kind of bogus allegation that Donald Trump has been making, that resulted in Biden’s election as the next president of the United States.

Hawley plans to object to the Electoral College certification of Biden’s clear and decisive — and honest — victory.

Hawley vows to challenge Biden electors, forcing vote McConnell hoped to avoid (msn.com)

The idiotic display won’t change the outcome. It merely delays the Senate ratification of the electoral vote tally until after senators and House members have a debate.

What in the hell they plan to debate is beyond me.

Hawley’s grandstanding move comes in direct defiance of what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has implored of his fellow GOP caucus members. However, it plays straight into the wheelhouse of Donald Trump — the Dipsh** in Chief — who is seeking to obstruct the president-elect’s smooth transition into the presidency.

Way to go … senator! You, young man, are an idiot!

national news

Trump seeking to stay in the game? Oh, my … no!

REUTERS/James Glover II

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump reportedly wants to remain a player in Republican Party politics once he’s shown the door out of the White House.

My goodness. I don’t whether to laugh or spit!

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has posited a notion that the most damning part of Trump’s legacy is the 46.8 percent of Americans — that’s 74 million of them — who voted for his re-election despite the damage he delivered to the presidency and possibly to democracy itself during his term in office.

They stand behind this clown’s attempts to cling to power despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden, who hauled in 81.2 million votes. They endorse his phony allegations of voter fraud. They applaud his effort to subvert democracy by challenging the certified results delivered by the Electoral College.

If this is the future of a once-great Grand Old Party, then so be it. Frankly, it portends a long, dark winter in the wilderness for the GOP if it continues to hang onto the fraudulent “ideology” for which Trump supposedly stands.

That presents a sad era in this country, which has flourished with healthy and constructive debate between two viable political parties. Indeed, President-elect Biden’s task as he takes over the executive branch is made all the more formidable with Trump continuing to bloviate from the peanut gallery. The aim appears clear: It is to “freeze” other potential presidential contenders who might consider making a White House run in 2024.

Donald Trump presided over a failed presidency. It is that clear to me and to most Americans who cast their votes in record numbers.

If he wants to remain a player, well, that falls squarely on the Republicans who have endorsed this venal individual’s quest for absolute power.

national news

Trump turns the seamless into agony

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump’s legacy as president didn’t have far to fall, but that didn’t deter Trump from doing all he can to destroy what little positive impact his term as president would have on the nation.

President-elect Joe Biden’s team needed a “seamless transition” from Trump’s team after the Nov. 3 election. Biden won the election handily. Trump, of course, has refused to concede. He is throwing up roadblocks along the way.

The seamless, peaceful transition now resembles nothing of the sort. Biden’s team is struggling to obtain needed intelligence from Trump’s national security apparatus. To be clear, the transition — so far! — appears set to occur without gunshots or tanks in the street. To that end, it will be a “peaceful” transfer of power from one administration to the next.

The “seamless” portion, though, also is part of our political custom. Presidents have lost their re-election efforts in the past and then presided over smooth transfers of power to the men who beat them. President Carter did so after the 1980 election, as did President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Sure, they spoke through gritted teeth when conceding to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, but they did and they behaved like statesmen while they handed over the reins of power to their successors.

Trump, to be blunt, is the farthest thing I can think of as a statesman. He is a charlatan, a huckster, a phony, a fraud who’s sole interest is in clinging to power.

And the president-elect’s team is paying the price for Trump’s reluctance to do what he should do, which is concede he lost fairly and squarely.

I take plenty of comfort in knowing that Trump will be gone from my house — the White House — on Jan. 20. If only it could be the kind of seamless transfer that used to be the envy of the world.

medical news

Pandemic is personal

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s absence of empathy and compassion is playing out in real time. He has tested positive for the coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. So has his wife, his youngest son, his oldest son and an assortment of those who are reportedly “close” to him.

Yet he continues to act publicly as if the only thing that matters is that election he lost and his effort to overturn a democratically conducted electoral process.

For the rest of us? It’s personal. The virus is striking close to my home. It has sickened members of my family. It has felled friends of ours. It is hurting our hearts and is causing us enough grief and anxiety to last, oh, probably forever.

Yet the president of the United States keeps playing golf, enjoys the glitz and glamor of his posh resort/house in Florida. He is content to fire off Twitter messages and bitch and moan about an election he lost.

Oh, the pandemic? He doesn’t give a rat’s a** about its effects on other American families. I cannot speak to how he has dealt with its impact on his own family. Frankly, at this point in this pandemic crisis I … just … don’t … care.

But I certainly do care that the president who took an oath to defend us has abdicated his duty while acting as if he doesn’t give a  rip about the suffering that’s occurring in this vast and great  land.

national news

Where is POTUS? Hello?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump remains AWOL. He is MIA. He is hiding in plain sight, out there on the golf course in south Florida, hacking away at little white balls.

Meanwhile, the nation continues to fight what looks still like a losing battle against the unseen enemy, the virus that has killed more than 337,000 Americans.

I no longer expect anything from Donald Trump. He’s all but a goner.

Then again, I remain fixated on this nagging sense that he should be in the game. He should be barking out directives to his team of “the best people” on how he intends to facilitate delivery of the much-needed and long-awaited vaccine.

There remains no national strategy to wage war against a national enemy. Remember when Donald Trump called himself a “wartime president” and that he would conduct himself in such a manner while battling this disease? That turned out to be yet another promise unkept.

We are being briefed almost daily by President-elect Biden and members of his medical/science team. They will be taking over in just 22 days; they cannot pass soon enough, if you ask me. They haven’t suited up just yet.

Which brings me back to my point. We have one president at a time. The nation remains buried under the tragedy brought to us by this disease. Donald Trump has abdicated his responsibility as the leader of this nation by homing in matters that have everything to do with his political future and not a single freaking thing to do with you and me … and our health and well-being!

I’ve heard pundits pontificate about how we should ignore Trump that he’s no longer relevant to the national discussion. I do ignore the lies. I ignore the self-serving bloviating. I will not ignore any president — no matter how distasteful he is — when he has something important to say about a pandemic that continues to ravage the country we all love.

Dammit to hell anyway! Donald Trump took an oath to protect us. At the end of that oath, he said “so help me God.” The nation he pledged to protect is suffering.

Step up … Donald! Then in only 22 days you can just get the hell out of the way.

local news

Don’t commit treason, Mr. VPOTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me this brief leap of faith.

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Nut House, is filing suit to demand that Vice President Mike Pence toss out the electoral votes that Joe Biden won in the presidential election and cast them instead for Donald Trump.

I do not believe Gohmert’s lawsuit will see the light of day. Nor do I believe that even if it did that Pence would follow the advice that the East Texas lunatic is suggesting.

On Jan. 6, the combined U.S. House and Senate will meet to ratify the Electoral College vote that has determined that Biden is the president-elect of the United States.

Gohmert is actually making a treasonous proposal by filing the lawsuit. It is astonishing, reprehensible, despicable, disgraceful and patently dangerous for Congress to even consider doing what Gohmert is demanding of the lame-duck vice president, and yet Gohmert has some fellow nut-job colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle who are willing to join him in this final act of idiocy.

To think, moreover, that the good folks of Gohmert’s East Texas congressional district continue to stand behind this goofball. They keep re-electing him every two years. Go … figure.

I’ll say it once more to VP Pence: Just do your job as the presiding officer of the joint congressional session, Mr. Vice President, and make the inevitable declaration that Joe Biden is the new president and that Kamala Harris is the new vice president.

Let’s then get back to actual governance and political sanity.

national news

Memo to DJT: It’s called ‘check and balance’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump is getting a real-time lesson on just how the federal government is supposed to work.

The president had vetoed a bill aimed at providing money for the Defense Department and the U.S. House of Representatives has just overridden that veto with an overwhelming, veto-proof tally. Trump’s response? It was to lash out at Republicans who joined their Democratic colleagues in overriding the veto.

Trump lashes out at Republicans after they override his veto – CNNPolitics

You see, here’s the deal … Donald. A president has to contend at times with another branch of government flexing its considerable musculature. That’s what happened in this instance. It didn’t set well with the Autocrat Wanna Be in Chief.

That GOP members would lock arms with Democrats on the defense matter is a clear signal of Trump’s waning power as his term as president comes to a welcome end.

Trump ain’t going out quietly, to be sure.

But as the saying goes — or as it might go: That’s why the nation’s framers built these checks into the Constitution … to prevent presidents from becoming dictators.

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