national news

Two presidents … at once?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden would bristle at the thought, but I’ll express it anyway.

We seem to have two presidents at once while Biden begins the transition into the world’s most powerful office.

Sure, the current president is still doing things that only presidents can do. Such as grant an unconditional pardon to an admitted felon, someone who lied to the FBI and to the vice president about the contacts he had with Russian goons who attacked our electoral system.

Meanwhile, the president-in-waiting delivered a heartfelt Thanksgiving message intended to lift our spirits in the wake of a crippling and vicious pandemic. The current president, Donald Trump, is too busy arguing that Biden “stole” an election that Trump says he won “handily.”

Yes, it is true we only have one president at a time. In a strange sort of way, though, we are seeing a symbolic presidency overshadowing the real thing.

Amazing, yes?

national news

Preparing for challenge of a lifetime … or is it?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There are times when I watch public figures reach the pinnacle of whatever they are seeking to do that I wonder: What must they be thinking?

That thought has crossed my mind more than once as I observed President-elect Joe Biden prepare to become the head of state and commander in chief of our great and beloved nation.

Let’s set aside the nonsense that’s occurring on the sidelines, with the incumbent president who lost to Biden trying to perform some sort of hocus pocus by getting states to toss aside legitimate votes cast against him.

Instead, I am wondering how the president-elect is managing his emotions at this moment. It boggles my noggin, man.

This man has endured more heartache, embarrassment and misery than anyone I can fathom.

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He celebrated his 30th birthday between election day and when he would take office. Then in December of that year, his wife and infant daughter died in a horrific car crash. The young senator-to-be’s heart was shattered. He took office and then became a lion of the Senate.

Biden married again in 1975. He has said that “No man deserves one great love, let alone two.” He has flourished with Jill Biden at his side.

He ran for president in 1988. Then he got caught stealing lines from a prominent British politician. He re-cast the Brit’s life story and turned it into his own. Not good. He dropped out and returned to his work in the Senate.

Biden tried once again to reach for the highest rung on the ladder. In 2008, he ran against a young upstart senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama. He lost that campaign. Then the Democratic nominee, Obama, selected him to be vice president. The rest, as they say, is history.

But along the way, unspeakable tragedy arrived once again, in 2015. The VP’s son, Beau, died of brain cancer, crushing the heart of his father. He persevered. He had to bury his second child. To paraphrase that earlier quote from Biden: No man should have to bury one child, let alone two. 

Now it’s Biden’s turn.

Something tells me a man whose emotions have been tested in the most profound manner imaginable is going to do just fine as he reaches this summit.

local news

Giving thanks … even now!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Once upon a time, I used to write obligatory editorials for newspapers that offered words of thanks.

I mean, it’s Thanksgiving Day, right? A uniquely American holiday that is known around the world. Perhaps the most unique observance of this day I can recall occurred in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in November 1989.

My fellow journalists and I spent the day traveling from Cambodia during the day; we crossed the Mekong River on a raft full of folks carrying goods — and live animals — to market. We arrived in what used to be known as Saigon late that afternoon. We checked into our hotel.

We went to dinner that evening and the hotel staff, catering to their American guests, presented a meal of roast duck, mashed potatoes and peas. They wished us a happy Thanksgiving. It was delicious.

A Thanksgiving to remember … in Vietnam | High Plains Blogger

This year’s celebration brings its own unique quality. The world is enduring a pandemic. It has killed a quarter million Americans. There will be much more misery and heartache ahead. And yet …

We give thanks. We thank the first responders. We thank the medical personnel, the police officers and firefighters for their courage and dedication to protecting us. We thank teachers who educate our children. We are thanking the family members who endure the tragedy and we wish them Godspeed and our prayers.

We thank the researchers who are working diligently to find and perfect a vaccine that we hope will eradicate this killer disease.

We give thanks for our families, our friends and all those who are battling together.

I no longer write full time for newspapers. My work now is of a part-time, freelance nature. I give thanks to my employers for allowing me to keep my head in the game.

This truly is a time to give thanks and offer a word of hope that we might be finally on the road back to what we used to think of as “normal.”

We’re enduring this all at once. Let’s hope for better days … and let us give thanks for what — and who — we have around us.

national news, national security

Gen. Flynn: still a criminal

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A bit of perspective is in order as we ponder the pardon delivered by Donald Trump to the man who served briefly as national security adviser.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn received a “full presidential pardon” from Trump, who proclaimed that Flynn now can have a lovely Thanksgiving with his family.

Yes. He can. He can enjoy the holiday knowing he won’t go to prison.

However, the pardon does not erase the fact that Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI and to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russians who sought to attack our electoral system in 2016. That means, to be blunt, that he will be a criminal for the rest of his life.

I also should point out that despite the high praise Trump heaps on his disgraced national security adviser now he did fire him after 24 days on the job for lying to the VP, and said some harsh things — via Twitter, of course — at the time he fired him.

Trump’s pardon of Flynn does not expunge the record. It just keeps him out of the slammer.

Well, let’s all stay tuned. I am sure there will be more pardons to be delivered. Unbelievable!

medical news

COVID ain’t about politics, man!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

America passed another grim and tragic milestone, recording more than 2,000 deaths in a single day from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hmm. And still the issues of mask-wearing, social distancing, hand washing, precautions to avoid being infected by the killer virus continue to be the source of political disputes.

Republicans/conservatives don’t like being told to do those things; Democrats/progressives seem to be more willing to heed the warnings from the medical experts.

Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

I don’t give a sh**! I remain baffled in the extreme that this issue has devolved into a political spitting match.

Yes, I have concluded that one side is mistaken by ignoring the advice. I side with those who preach extreme caution. They are the folks who, for the most part, remain in relatively good health.

These vaccines are on the way, or so we are being told. I am a patient man. I am willing to wait my turn to get vaccinated. Until then, I am going to gnash my teeth at the continuing political debate over a virus that is no respecter of ideology. It kills indiscriminately.

national news

Transition makes the head spin

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This presidential transition, which began in earnest just two days ago — more than two weeks after an election! — has my noggin spinning.

I mean, we have a president in office who I am ignoring. Why? Because I believe nothing that comes out of Donald J. Trump’s mouth. That’s why! He is irrelevant to me … unless, of course, he decides to start a war or do something else that’s really stupid and foolish. He is the commander in chief until Jan. 20.

We also have a president-elect who won the election clearly and decisively in a free and fair contest. Joe Biden is the one who is sounding, acting and behaving in a presidential manner. And he’s not in even in office yet!

Do you get my point? Maybe I shouldn’t suffer from this head-spinning dilemma. OK, I won’t.

I am just going to focus solely on the rhetoric I hear from President-elect Biden and ignore the hogwash that spews from Donald J. Trump.

There. Problem solved. My head just stopped spinning.

national news

Trump refuses to accept loss? Big … deal!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The media need to stop harping on an issue that, to my way of thinking, has zero relevance to anything important.

It is that Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

Trump went to Pennsylvania today to pitch the bogus assertion that Biden’s win was the result of a “rigged” election. It won’t matter. The courts there will do what other courts have done, which is toss the complaints out summarily.

As The Associated Press reported: “This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot,” Trump declared to the group gathered at a hotel in Gettysburg. Trump, in fact, lost to President-elect Joe Biden by about 80,000 votes in the state, and Pennsylvania certified Biden as the winner on Tuesday.

The important aspect of this post-election drama is that the General Services Administration has commenced the transition process with the new president’s team. That is what matters. It doesn’t matte a damn bit to me that Donald Trump won’t accept the obvious.

You see, we all know what the numbers tell us: Joe Biden collected 80 million votes; he won 306 Electoral College votes; he beat Trump by roughly 4 percentage points; Biden flipped five states that voted for Trump in 2016.

What’s more, he did all this while winning what Donald Trump’s own national security election guru has called the “most secure election” in U.S. history.

Whether the current president accepts this is irrelevant. Donald Trump is under no legal or constitutional obligation to do so. It’s merely a custom. Trump has boasted of smashing presidential customs. So, let him smash this one, too.

I merely want the GSA to certify the obvious and for the transition to continue as it should, giving President-elect Biden’s team access to relevant pandemic response issues, daily presidential intelligence briefs, the whole host of issues that the new guy needs to familiarize himself with as he prepares to take office.

Trump’s petulance is the reaction of a narcissist.

national news

Flynn gets pardson; so … ?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here’s a flash for you: A presidential pardon does no expunge the record of a man who has admitted to lying twice to the FBI and the vice president of the United States.

He won’t do time. That’s the effect of the pardon that Donald Trump today issued for retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a one-time (and short-time) national security adviser to the Trump administration.

Flynn’s acceptance of the pardon, of course, also implies guilt for the crime he admitted to committing.

Flynn disgraced his uniform by lying to the FBI about what he knew about the Russian efforts to attack our electoral system in 2016. He did it again by lying to VP Mike Pence.

No presidential pardon doesn’t restore Michael Flynn’s reputation, which he plowed asunder all by himself. Still, it’s a disgrace that Donald Trump would issue it.

national news

Thank you, Mr. POTUS-elect

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I might be inclined to suggest that President-elect Biden is getting ahead of himself by delivering a Thanksgiving Day speech to the country that has elected him president of the United States.

Except for this …

The actual president, the guy who’s still on the job, cannot possibly deliver the kind of message we heard today from his successor.

Donald Trump doesn’t relate to people’s suffering during this pandemic, or their loss of a loved one that leaves an empty seat at the dinner table.

Biden said we should be “thankful for democracy itself.” Yes, I am quite thankful for it and for the blessings that have come to my family and me over many years.

Yes, I get that Joe Biden isn’t yet the president of the United States, but so help me he is sounding like the right man for this moment.

local news

Welcome to Season of Stress

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No one calls it this, but we are on the cusp of entering the Season of Stress in the United States of America.

Let me be crystal clear about this point. I vowed long ago to avoid getting sucked into the stress associated with the Thanksgiving-Christmas time of year. Think of the irony.

We celebrate Thanksgiving by, um, giving thanks for our plenty, for our loved ones, for our good health and all the things for which we should be giving thanks. Then many of us launch into the holiday buying season, scrambling at stores, plowing through the Internet for the deals of the century. Then we get bummed out when we cannot find the perfect gift to send to the special people in our lives.

It ain’t happening in our house. At least that’s my hope.

Now, what about the 2020 Season of Stress? We have this other thing hanging over us like a dark storm cloud.

It’s that pandemic. Right there we have a damn good reason to stress out.

Americans are dying daily. We set another “record” for deaths overnight. That record is likely to be broken, maybe today or tomorrow. Whenever.

The pandemic is inhibiting our gatherings. The nation’s health experts are warning us about the hazards of sitting on crowded airplanes or gathering around crowded dinner tables with extended family and friends. They tell us: Stay home; keep it quiet and simple; stay away from your loved ones; wear masks; practice appropriate distancing measures.

If that isn’t enough to cause stress in your life, I don’t know what will do it.

But … let us give thanks for this bit of potentially astonishing news: vaccines well might be on the way to a doctor or a pharmacy near you and me.

This is an extraordinary season in an equally extraordinary year. I will not shed a single tear as we say goodbye to 2020 in a few weeks. As for the stress, I am going to fight like the dickens to avoid it.

I am thankful.

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