media news, State news

Paxton: the real Bum Steer of the Year

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My favorite issue each year of Texas Monthly arrived in the mail today and I saw something on the cover that made me wince in disappointment.

TM named the Texas Democratic Party as its Bum Steer of the Year in its annual Bum Steer edition that comes out at the end of every calendar year. The magazine has hit many home runs with its Bum Steer “honor,” and it also has whiffed. I fear that the magazine’s publishing deadline created a missed opportunity.

Yes, the Democratic Party missed its “blue wave” prediction, claiming it would sweep into elective power in the Nov. 3 election. It sure missed … by a Texas mile.

Something happened, though, between the magazine’s deadline and its production that to my mind provided an even more egregious Bum Steer for the magazine to consider.

That would be Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s moronic lawsuit that sought the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election results in four states that voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. SCOTUS tossed the lawsuit in a fit of judicial wisdom many of us didn’t quite expect from a court that comprises three justices nominated by Donald Trump. Sanity prevailed.

However, Paxton’s lawsuit brought a significant level of scorn to Texas. The AG couldn’t dictate how other states conduct their electoral affairs, the court ruled. Indeed, many critics have wondered whether Paxton — a dedicated Republican — has a screw loose.

He did all that while the FBI is investigating whether he committed crimes while serving as AG, which brings many of us to wonder whether Paxton is angling for a presidential pardon for any crimes that the FBI might uncover. A pardon from Trump, I hasten to add, wouldn’t involve the state trial that awaits Paxton on allegations of securities fraud. The guy’s a serious peach, you know?

I am well aware that Paxton dodged a bit of a freight train simply by virtue of the deadline that TM faced when it was assembling its Bum Steer issue. I also know that he likely won’t get the magazine’s Bum Steer of the Year “honor” at the end of 2021. Too bad.

Still, I want to bestow my own version of a venerable award to a politician who — with his idiotic effort to subvert the democratic process — has brought shame and ridicule to our great state.

Thanks for not a damn thing, Mr. AG.

national news

POTUS-elect speaks to us … and for us

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Joe Biden did it again.

At a time when the nation reels from a bizarre act of violence in a major city, the man who is set to become president spoke words that should be coming from the individual who’s already in the office.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in downtown Nashville, Tenn., on Christmas Day. Police found his remains inside the recreational vehicle he used to carry the bomb. It’s a miracle there were no fatalities in the blast.

Where was Donald J. Trump? Hmm. Playing golf in Florida, more than likely. He hasn’t spoken publicly about the frightening event in Nashville.

President-elect Biden did speak to us today about what transpired. He offered his congratulations and thanks to local and federal authorities for the quick work they did in identifying the bomber.

Joe Biden makes FIRST comments on Nashville bombing – YouTube

What strikes me yet again, though, is that we are hearing from the man who hasn’t yet taken the presidential oath while the man who has taken the oath remains squirreled away in his glitzy south Florida resort. The silence from Mar-a-Lago is deafening.

A sense of compassion and empathy from the president has been missing for the past four years. President Biden will restore it. He will speak to us when the moment compels him to do so and he will speak to us in terms to which we can relate.

The role of Consoler in Chief is not written into the presidential job description. But it’s there to be carried out when moments present themselves. Granted, we suffered no loss of innocent life in Nashville, but a president who feels a community’s pain should be able and willing to speak to a nation whose citizens are demanding answers.

Donald Trump, as we have seen time and again for the past four years, simply is not wired that way. Joe Biden clearly has the compassion gene that Trump never received.

A nation that has been deprived of that presidential compassion should welcome it when it arrives in the form of President Biden.

Uncategorized

Do your duty, Mr. VPOTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vice President Mike Pence has one more critical job awaiting him before he leaves office.

He is scheduled — but not required — to preside over a joint session of Congress which on Jan. 6 is going to receive the Electoral College certified tally of the presidential election. It will tally up the votes cast by the electors and then Pence, according to custom, will declare that Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris have been elected president and vice president of the United States of America.

What does the VP do?

That’s easy from my vantage point. He presides over the outcome and makes the declaration on behalf of Congress and the Electoral College.

He is likely, though, to wonder if that’s the correct choice. Of course it is! However, he is likely then to incur the wrath of the man Biden defeated, Donald J. Trump, who continues to bully fellow Republicans to continue resisting the obvious outcome of the election. Trump is seeking to cling to power.

He has lined up a number of GOP loony birds who have swallowed the swill he is serving, that he actually won. To their great credit, some Rs in Congress are urging Trump to give up the fight.

One prominent Republican happens to be Mike Pence, who on Jan. 6 had better do what he must do. If he cannot make the declaration we all intend to hear, he should stand down, step aside and let the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, make the call.

A small, but growing, part of me believes that VP Mike Pence will be AWOL when the moment arrives.

national news

How does GOP stand for this?

(Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This question demands an answer.

How in the name of good government do congressional Republicans and party members across the board justify their allegiance to a president who knifed them in the back over a COVID relief bill that he eventually signed into law?

Donald Trump called the COVID package a “disgrace” after GOP members of Congress joined their Democratic colleagues in embracing a bill that Trump’s team helped negotiate.

Then the POTUS tossed them all under that big ol’ bus and threatened to veto it. He said the relief bill doesn’t give enough money to Americans; he blasted it for the “waste” it contains that he wants removed.

Where in the hell was he during the negotiations? Don’t answer that. I know where he was. He was on the golf course and was using his Twitter account to blast the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to “rig” the 2020 election against him.

Trump took no active part in any element of this wheeling and dealing. He sat on the sidelines and then rammed the knife deeply into the back of his GOP “friends” and “allies” by describing the bill they endorsed is the worst piece of legislation ever enacted … or words to that effect.

And yet …

The GOP remains loyal to this clown? The party leaders in both congressional chambers won’t condemn him in the strongest language they can muster up?

Republicans in Congress will not go along with the $2,000 payment that Trump insists on giving out. Sure, it’s more generous than the $600 payments that have been approved — and now signed by Trump.

Still, it boggles my noodle to understand the point of all these machinations by a guy with no knowledge of the legislative process or understanding of how government works.

What’s more, my brain is trying to comprehend how the folks who do know these things — particularly those on the Republican side of the great divide — continue to support this clown’s feckless and futile bid to overturn a democratically run presidential election.

Go … figure, man!

national news

Trump backs down … or does he?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump wanted more money for Americans suffering from the pandemic. He also wanted to get rid of wasteful spending in a bill his team negotiated with Congress.

He threatened to veto the whole thing. Then — wouldn’t you just know it? — Donald Trump changed his mind and signed the bill into law.

Merry belated Christmas, Americans. We’re going to get that $600 per person payout that Trump said was too little; he wants us to get 2 grand apiece. He also wants to get rid of waste in the bill. Except that it’s still in the legislation he signed into law.

Good news is out there. The government won’t shut down. Unemployment benefits will be restored. I guess we should be grateful for all of that. And I am.

I circle back to a fundamental question: Why in the world did POTUS subject us to this chaos, uncertainty, anxiety, misery? His team was a partner with Congress in coming up with the bill. He said he would support it. Then he changed his mind. Now he has changed his mind again.

Trump is making demands on Congress to produce a fresh bill that excludes items he has “red lined” item by item that he wants taken out. We’ll have to see how well Congress reacts to the demands being placed by the leader of the other co-equal government branch.

My head is spinning.

national news

Preparing to embrace a new year like never before

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s just me, I suppose. Then again, there might billions of other human beings who share my view about what is going to transpire in just a few days.

They’re going to drop that ball in Times Square and we’re going to welcome 2021. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am prepared fully to embrace the new year in a manner I have never done in my life. Not ever!

The year we are about to kick into the crapper has been the pits beyond belief. You know to what I refer: the pandemic.

To be somewhat charitable toward 2020, I should note that we end this smelly armpit of a year on a hopeful note. Researchers have developed vaccines developed to eradicate the virus and doses of it are being injected into millions of Americans’ arms as we sit here tonight.

It will take time for the killer virus to vanish. Maybe another year? Or longer? I don’t know. Neither can even the most learned infectious disease experts say with any certainty when the virus will vanish.

We have lost more than 332,000 Americans. Many more are going to die from this disease. It has caused untold heartache, heartbreak, misery and agony. Those of us who have not been stricken by the virus have been forced to change our living habits. It’s been a bit of a struggle for many Americans.

What’s more — and this is unbelievable to me — the issue of preventative measures has become a political flash point. How in the name of medical safety can this happen? Oh, I know. It happens because the president of the United States has made it one. Donald Trump has denigrated those who wear masks or take other extraordinary measures to avoid getting sickened by the virus and his followers have taken his cue.

Ridiculous!

The old year is about to pass into history. Those who write about such things no doubt will attach plenty of superlatives to describe 2020: unprecedented, historic, without parallel.

I’ll add the term “miserable.” Accordingly, when the old year passes and the new arrives I might break with a recent tradition and stay awake long enough to cheer the end of the most heartbreaking year I can remember.

legal news, national news

Pardons cross the line

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Presidential pardons remain the exclusive domain of the individual in power at the top of the U.S. political chain of command. Presidents grant them with literally no checks on their propriety.

Their impropriety often crosses party lines, with presidents of both parties abusing the power laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

However, the busload of pardons handed out by Donald J. Trump all have a peculiar and frightening look of familiarity to them. He has delivered pardons and commutations to people who (a) are friends and political allies and (b) who have committed heinous acts in defense of policies that he favors.

Procedure calls for presidents to run pardon  requests through a series of examinations by the Justice Department. They usually include those who have behaved well under federal custody or who have expressed some level of remorse for whatever deed they did. I am unaware so far of any expression of remorse from the likes of Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos or the four Blackwater contractors convicted of killing innocent civilians in Iraq.

Oh, no. They’ve been handed a free get-out-of-jail card by Donald Trump for reasons that have nothing to do with what they are accused — or convicted! — of doing.

Understand, too, that presidents are not bound by law to follow the procedure laid out. They can do whatever the hell they want and that is what Donald Trump has done so far.

This is the kind of exit we all should have expected from Donald Trump as he prepares to leave the White House for the final time; indeed, he might have done so already, having jetted off to Florida to spend the holiday with his family … at least that’s my hope.

This is an astonishing end to an astonishing term as president for Donald Trump. It ain’t normal. If only we had the last of it … if only.

national news

Yeah, good riddance … 2020!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot take credit for thinking this up, but it cracks me up so much I want to share it here.

A Facebook meme showed up that reminded us that when the new year commences in a few days, that “no one is going to write the wrong year on our checks, I can effing guarantee that.”

Yep, no doubt we are going to say so long, farewell, sayonara, good riddance to 2020. I will gladly and without a single solitary moment of hesitation write the new year on any document that requires it.

Bring it on, 2021!

economic news

Mnuchin joins Trump casualty list

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin might have thought he was indestructible, that Donald Trump wouldn’t — couldn’t possibly — throw him under the proverbial bus.

Then came Trump’s bizarre video tweet and his rejection of a COVID-19 relief package that Mnuchin negotiated with congressional Democrats and Republicans on Trump’s behalf.

He now has joined the list of Cabinet officers who have fallen out of favor with a president who first picked them, then turned on them. Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, Jeff Sessions all have been booted or quit because they no longer could work for Trump. I haven’t even counted the multiple White House chiefs of staff and national security advisers.

Mnuchin’s betrayal might be the most bizarre of all.

As the Washington Post reported: The president’s denunciation of the agreement represented a stunning public broadside against his own treasury secretary, who for four years loyally shielded the president’s tax returns, endured repeated presidential tirades in private, and defended even Trump’s most incendiary and contradictory remarks. Through it all, Mnuchin had emerged with the unique ability to walk a tightrope between Trump and congressional leaders, serving as an emissary in difficult negotiations. That all ended on Tuesday, when Trump posted a video on Twitter ridiculing the agreement.

Mnuchin’s loyalty to Trump could end with painful setback as president shreds stimulus deal (msn.com)

The deal called for $600 payments to Americans; it extended unemployment insurance for millions of Americans; it keeps the government running past next Tuesday. Mnuchin packed Trump’s load for this deal while working with members of Congress. Now he’s been stabbed deeply in the back.

Wow! That’s all I have at this moment.

Trump’s chaotic end as president could possibly inflict an enormous number of casualties. I do not include Secretary Mnuchin among them. They would include millions of Americans who are waiting on some form of relief from their government. Now comes this astonishing rejection by the man elected president of the United States — the guy who took an oath to protect Americans — of a deal his team negotiated on his behalf.

Can there be anything more disgusting than this? Sure, but holy smokes, man! This really stinks!

Steve Mnuchin now stands as the latest example of how Donald Trump measures loyalty. It goes only in one direction. This individual does not return it … to anyone!

national news

Biden finally set to fulfill longtime ambition

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 BBy JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is no stretch at all to presume that Joe Biden has wanted to be elected president of the United States for a very long time.

He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and for all I know he might have harbored presidential ambitions even as he took his Senate office at age 30.

He ran for president in 1988, but then fell out when he got caught plagiarizing speeches from a British politician. Biden tried again in 2008, but got buried early and pulled out … only to get a call from that year’s presidential nominee, Barack Hussein Obama, to run with him as vice president.

Now he has reached the pinnacle of political power.

It is times like this when I try to imagine how a normal human mind processes this marvelous achievement. Biden is facing roadblocks and assorted obstacles from the man he defeated in this year’s election. Donald Trump not only has failed to assure us of a peaceful transfer of power, he has delivered a transfer that is anything but the kind of peaceful transition the world usually looks on with awe and wonder.

However, the president-elect who at many levels likely has prepared himself for this moment is no doubt trying mightily to put the resistance aside as best he can. He is trying to cobble together a governmental executive team that will do his bidding and will work for the benefit of all Americans.

How does someone wired like Joe Biden process as well the notion that his many years as a senator and then as VP set him up to take on this task? I am left to wonder if he has doubts about whether he has dotted all the “i’s” and crossed all the “t’s.”

I have known about Joe Biden since he first became a U.S. senator. I was a young college student with a keen interest in politics. I watched him take office after enduring the tragic deaths of his wife and baby daughter in a car crash. I sort of kept an eye on him as he grew into the job. I watched him chair Senate confirmation hearings and listened to him debate opponents on the other side of the Senate chamber.

I was aware of Sen. Biden’s devotion to his sons, to his new wife and the little girl the two of them produced. I watched his first presidential campaign flame out and watched his embarrassment displayed before the land as he sought to explain how he could portray another man’s story as his own.

Somehow this fellow survived. He flourished. He got knocked down. He buried another child. And he steadied his feet under him.

Now he is about to ascend to the very top of the political summit. Not bad. Still, as I watch him I am left to wonder with all due amazement: How does one really prepare for what lies ahead as he becomes head of state and commander in chief of the world’s mightiest nation.

We are about to learn whether he has studied well.

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