medical news

How to react if POTUS get sick?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to acknowledge something that makes me terribly uncomfortable, so bear with me.

Hope Hicks, who is Donald Trump’s closest non-family adviser inside the White House, has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Thus, the quandary. I truly am wrestling with how I should react if Donald Trump becomes infected with the virus. Do I shudder in fear for the immediate future of our government? Must I offer “thoughts and prayers” for Trump and his family?

Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden the other night because the Democratic presidential nominee wears a mask when he’s out and about; Trump forgoes a mask. Trump stages indoor rallies in front of large crowds comprising Trumpkins who also do not wear masks. The president violates the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So, back to the question: How do I respond to knowledge that Donald Trump himself might become infected with the coronavirus?

Medical experts say that anyone who is close to those who test positive for the virus should quarantine themselves for two weeks. Does that include the president of the United States and the first lady and the couple’s teenage son?

If the president is going to be reckless in his behavior about the pandemic, how is it that I should somehow be compelled to feel badly if he gets sick?

I think I have just talked myself out of feeling any concern about an individual who has lied about the severity of the pandemic and has denigrated the scientists who warn us to wear masks and to maintain “social distance” to keep ourselves and others safe from a potentially killer virus.

national news

Anger is palpable

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Has there ever been a presidential campaign — in the past century — that has evoked the kind of visceral anger between devotees of both major-party presidential candidates than this one?

Donald Trump’s minions are accusing Joe Biden’s fans of fomenting socialism. Biden’s side argues that Trump is unfit to serve as president. Trump’s team is suggesting that Biden’s mental acuity is slipping. Biden’s team says Trump has become unhinged.

They sides now are talking to each other. Trumpkins accuse Bidenistas of hating America. Reverse those accusations and we hear the Biden team suggesting that Trump’s side favors Russian interests over American interests.

Who is to blame for this?

Here it comes. I blame Donald John Trump fully, completely and without equivocation.

Trump has fomented this kind of anger with his own fiery rhetoric. His campaign launch in 2015 with a blistering attack on Latin American immigrants and continued with a call to ban all travel into the country from those who live in mostly Muslim countries.

It has hurtled downhill from there.

The nadir of Trump’s presidency might have been when he called Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazis “good people.” Hmm. My dear old Dad would have come totally unglued were he around to hear that one, given that he went to war in 1942 to fight those very Nazis.

The litany of divisive rhetoric is too lengthy to recount here. You know what I’m talking about. The consequence has been anger that has filtered into the ranks of those who adore Donald Trump and those who loathe him.

Joe Biden Jr. promises to heal the nation. He wants to restore our national “soul.” I pray that the American soul isn’t permanently damaged by the battering it has received during the tenure of the Donald Trump’s time as president.

local news, State news

Vote early … or else?

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I truly cannot believe I am saying this, but the decision we have made in our house to vote early is beginning to look more attractive with each passing day.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made the decision even more righteous by deciding to limit hand-delivered absentee drop boxes to one per county. That’s one place to drop off your ballots no matter whether you live in a small rural county or a large urban one. My wife and I reside in Collin County, home to 1 million Texans.

Let’s see how this works. Democrats blame the Republican governor of employing voter-suppression tactics by issuing such a restrictive order.

The Texas Tribune reports: Voting rights advocates say Abbott’s move will make absentee balloting more difficult in a year when more Texans than ever are expected to vote by mail. Drop-off locations, advocates said, are particularly important given concerns about Postal Service delays, especially for disabled voters or those without access to reliable transportation.

… Abbott described his proclamation as an effort to “strengthen ballot security protocols throughout the state.” A spokesperson did not respond to questions about how allowing multiple drop-off locations might lead to fraud.

The USPS has come under intense scrutiny over the way it plans to handle a huge spike in mail-in voting in this pandemic age.

My wife and I intend to vote early in person at one of the polling locations set aside here in Collin County. We might vote at the Allen Event Center, which is a sizable venue that provides ample space for us to “socially distance.” Or we might vote at First Baptist Church in Princeton, where we’ve voted in earlier elections. We were impressed with how well the poll workers kept us safe during that election, so we might stay close to home to cast our ballots.

I would have preferred to wait until Election Day to cast my ballot. I now will heed the plea offered by Joe Biden and others in his camp who urge Americans to vote early. Vote “in person” if we can. Well, we can vote in person so we will do that and we will do so early.

I want my vote to count. I suppose, furthermore, that perhaps Donald Trump has sown enough suspicion in my own mind and heart about the Postal Service to make sure I vote in person at the earliest possible moment.

national news

Next up: Harris vs. Pence

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis92@hotmail.com

I won’t describe the recent Joe Biden-Donald Trump bitch-fest as a “debate,” and to be candid I am now a bit leery of what we might get when the parties’ vice-presidential nominees square off next week at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

However, we’re going to watch Democratic Party VP nominee Sen. Kamala Harris square off against Vice President Mike Pence. I will sit in front of my TV just as I did when Biden and Trump squabbled earlier this week.

Here is what I hope happens …

I hope Harris cleans and dresses Pence. I also hope — and I have modest expectations that it will happen — that the vice president will not follow his hero’s lead and take their encounter down the same trail that Trump did with Biden.

Pence, to his credit, doesn’t seem like the kind of boorish hooligan that Trump revealed himself to be Tuesday night.

He has a record that is difficult to defend. He has led the coronavirus task force charged with coordinating our national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He, um, hasn’t done well … at all! Harris will exploit those shortcomings. I don’t expect Pence to stand silently while Harris pummels him.

Nor do I expect Pence to unleash a string of hideous lies while Harris is speaking.

So there you have it. I have set modest expectations for what we might get when Sen. Harris and VP Pence square off. I mean, after watching the sh** show put on by Donald Trump, there is nowhere to go but straight up.

national news

2020 slogan emerges

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Ronald Reagan ran for re-election in 1984 under the slogan that it was “Morning in America.”

Eight years later, Bill Clinton ran for president with a phrase coined in the 1992 campaign war room: “It’s the economy,  stupid.”

Here we are in 2020. Joe Biden is running for president and I believe I have discerned what might be the slogan of this campaign.

“Will you shut up, man?”

Biden blurted that tidbit out Tuesday night while Donald J. Trump was interrupting him for the umpteenth time.

There you have it. Look for t-shirts, ballcaps and perhaps even face masks with “Shut up man!” plastered on the garments.

It works for me.

Well said, Mr. Vice President.

national news

Trump cannot recover

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

First-debate performances have been a curse occasionally for presidents seeking re-election.

Donald Trump’s astonishing display of boorishness Tuesday night, though, might produce an insurmountable obstacle for this president. I want to revisit two recent examples of first-debate stumbles.

  • In 1984, President Reagan stumbled, bumbled and mumbled his way through a joint appearance with Democratic challenger Walter Mondale; many observers wondered whether Reagan had “lost it.” The two men came back at the next debate and the president was asked whether he was up to the job of president. He responded that “I will not exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” He brought the house down … and then won re-election in a 49-state landslide.
  • In 2012, President Obama was facing a tough fight against Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The candidates faced off in a debate. Obama was clumsy, off his game, offering muted responses to questions. Romney essentially wiped the floor with Obama. They returned a few days later and Obama recovered his voice and thumped Romney. Obama then was re-elected with a handsome majority.

So now I ask: Is there any way that Donald Trump can recover from what’s been called a “sh** show” this week? I do not know how he does.

Trump won’t listen to advice. He doesn’t accept the wisdom of others with actual knowledge of pertinent matters.

Indeed, given the astonishingly graphic nature of his behavior Tuesday night, it boggles my mind to understand how he steps across that behavior to make Americans forget about what they witnessed in real time.

We all saw what I consider to be the most shameful incident ever put on by a president of the United States. He has demonstrated once and for all that he is an embarrassment to the country he was elected to govern.

He told white supremacists to “stand by” while we count the ballots; he mocked his opponent for wearing a mask in the middle of a killer pandemic; Trump told lie after freaking lie on live TV.

How does he recover from that? In my humble view, he doesn’t … and that’s a good thing for the United States of America.

national security

Where … from here?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I received a brief email message overnight from a friend who lives way Down Under in South Australia.

He writes:

We have a coarse metaphor in this country to describe a disagreement with an obstinate person…

On the context of the debate, it would go something like this:

“Debating Donald Trump is like wrestling a pig in shit. After a while you realise the pig enjoys it … “

Seriously, where do you all go from here?

My friend casts a keen and discerning eye on U.S. politics and he and I have been sharing thoughts over many years now about the presidential candidacy and the presidency of Donald John Trump.

He is a learned and astute political observer. He asks a question that should trouble all Americans who are concerned and troubled by what we witnessed Tuesday when Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden sought to “debate” the issues of the day.

They didn’t debate anything. Trump dragged the proceeding straight into the gutter right off the top. Meanwhile, in this age of worldwide reach, our allies in places like Australia witnessed it right along with us. They, too, are embarrassed for us and ashamed of us for the so-called quality of political discourse we are receiving.

To answer my friend’s question about “where do you all go from here?” I would respond only by saying is that we need to vote the numbskull president out of office.

Seriously!

national news

No more of what we saw … please!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The commission that sets the rules for these presidential encounters now is promising to change the rules designed to prevent the hideous spectacle millions of Americans witnessed Tuesday night in Cleveland, Ohio.

Donald Trump was at his boorish worst when he interrupted Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly during the hour and a half set aside ostensibly to educate us on policy differences between the men. He was, to put it candidly, an a**hole extraordinaire. 

If Americans are going to get more of that kind of treatment, you can count me out. Maybe my wife, too. What we saw was unwatchable.

My preference at this point would be for the commission to cancel the next two presidential events, keep the vice-presidential presentation in place with Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence … and hope for the best.

I have zero expectation that Donald Trump will be able to control his crass instincts.

national news

You want more of that?

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I awoke this morning after a good night of sleep wondering the following: What the hell did I witness last night?

My wife and I sat in our living room for 97 minutes and watched Donald John Trump behave in a manner that was stunning in its lack of decorum, honor, decency and dignity. He was, to put it candidly, the worst example of political boorishness many of us have ever seen.

As my wife noted, “He might be ‘the president,’ but nothing he did was presidential.”

Then we had Joe Biden, the Democratic challenger who had to endure what we all endured. Oh, my. Biden didn’t sparkle, or shine. However, he did more or less seek to play by the rules agreed upon by both presidential campaigns. They involved letting both men speak for two minutes uninterrupted when answering questions from moderator Chris Wallace.

Donald Trump failed. He couldn’t keep his yapper shut for two minutes. Hell, he couldn’t keep quiet for 20 seconds before interrupting Joe Biden or talking over Wallace’s efforts to restore order.

What did we learn from that encounter?

Not much of a constructive nature. However, two moments stand out for me.

Wallace asked Trump if he would categorically condemn white supremacists and urge them to “stand down” and not foment further violence. Trump refused. He demonstrated a reprehensible tolerance for the hate groups that have lined up behind him and his re-election bid. He urged them to “stand back and stand by.” Stand by!? What the fu** is that all about?

We know what he meant. Disgraceful, indeed.

Then came the moment when Biden sought to remind Trump that Biden’s late son, Beau, served in Iraq for a year and earned the Bronze Star. He said Beau Biden was not a “sucker or a loser.” Did Trump acknowledge Beau Biden’s service to the nation? Oh, no. He then launched an attack against the former VP’s younger son, Hunter, and lied about Hunter Biden’s discharge from the military.

We have two more of these events coming up; I refuse to call them “debates,” but what we saw Tuesday night bore no resemblance to anything of the sort. If we’re going to get more of what we have just witnessed, I will not watch. As a friend of mine noted immediately after last night’s sh** show, Trump needs to be fitted with a shock collar that should be wired to blast him when he speaks over Joe Biden.

I am so looking forward to casting my vote for president.

national news

Debate No. 1: Unwatchable

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I agree with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos’s view of the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

It was “the worst presidential debate I’ve ever seen,” said the news anchor. Yes. It certainly was the worst one I’ve ever seen as well.

Who owns the unwatchability of this mess? Donald Trump.

The president came in spoiling for a fight. He was rude. He was the bully we all have come to know and loathe. Trump’s performance tonight was about as hideous as anything I’ve ever witnessed.

To be somewhat fair, Joe Biden didn’t rise significantly above the sh** show that Trump revealed to us. He sought to do so by looking into the camera and talking to you and me in our living rooms. Then again, he did call Trump a “clown” and told him to shut up.

Sigh …

I want to give a shout-out to Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor who had the horrible task of trying to moderate this event. He tried on several occasions to tell Trump that as moderator, he was insisting that Trump adhere to the rules that his campaign agreed to along with Biden’s team.

The Trumpkin Corps no doubt will see this event differently. Fine. Go for it, folks.

For my money, Donald Trump showed us all that he remains the Bully in Chief.

Just think, we have two more of these to endure.

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