national news

Career pol vs. rank amateur

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am wondering when the term “career politician” became a four-letter word, an epithet that no one wants to have plastered next to their name.

In the context of the 2020 campaign for the U.S. presidency, I am going to say out loud and with crystal clarity that I much prefer a career politician over the rank amateur who are vying for the nation’s highest political office.

Joseph Biden Jr. is the career politician in this race. Donald J. Trump is the other guy. The rank amateur has had nearly four years to fix the things he said that he could repair all by himself. He hasn’t gotten the job done.

Biden’s pledge? He wants to restore our national soul. Beyond that, Biden wants to bring a sense of public service to the apex public service job in America.

Yes, Biden is a career politician. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He served there for 36 years. Then he accepted Barack Obama’s offer to run as vice president in 2008. He served for two times at President Obama’s side.

A career politician doesn’t have to be someone who enriches himself on the public dime. He doesn’t need to lie just because he fears the truth. A career politician can, indeed, be someone who is dedicated to public service.

A career politician quite often is someone who understands the complexities of government … and it is a complex endeavor. Legislating is complicated. It often requires compromise, which results when a career pol gives a little and takes a little here and there. The career politician works with other career politicians who might share different world views, but they all seek a common goal.

I am not a Pollyanna who thinks all career pols are paragons of virtue. I’ve known my share of snakes and skunks in public life. I just don’t happen to believe that Joe Biden falls into that category of career politician.

As for snakes and skunks, well, they exist in the so-called “real world” of business, too. Do you get my drift here?

Donald Trump sold many of us a bill of goods in 2016. He called himself a self-made success story. He is neither self-made nor is he a successful businessman. Sure, he’s rich and he reminds us of that fact regularly. He’s also insecure, which reveals itself by his constant reminders of his gawdy lifestyle.

He doesn’t know how government works. He has no intention of learning how it works. Trump doesn’t care about you or me. Only about himself. Public service is not in his DNA and it was nowhere to be found in his background before he became a politician.

I want my government to work again. I am more than willing to put my government back in the hands of a career politician who knows how to maneuver the levers.

medical news

WHO did what?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have lamented how social media can corrupt our thinking while dictating the course of public debate.

Then again, it provides a laugh … even at issues that aren’t haw-haw funny. Such as this Twitter item that found its way onto my Facebook feed today.

Donald Trump got angry with the World Health Organization because it supposedly gave the COVID/coronavirus pandemic the short shrift. He wants to pull the United States out of the WHO.

But wait! Now we hear from none other than the iconic journalist Bob Woodward that Donald Trump did the very same thing. Wow, man! Who knew?

We have Trump’s voice recorded forever telling Woodward that the president didn’t want to “panic” Americans. So he lied to us. He told us the pandemic was like the flu. He said the nation’s doctors had it all “under control” and that the coronavirus would disappear … like a miracle!

That’s what Trump said. Woodward’s got it on audio recording.

So, does this mean Trump will set aside his anger with WHO, return the nation he governs to the health agency and rejoin the international fight to find a vaccine for the killer virus?

No. It doesn’t mean that at all.  Because Donald Trump doesn’t acknowledge when he’s wrong. He doesn’t admit to being a fallible human being.

The Donald’s only instinct is to lie. Then he expects us to believe the lies he blurts out.

media news

Media casualty list climbs

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Social media in the Age of Donald Trump have claimed two more casualties … who happen to be members of my family.

I get that two such “injuries” don’t by themselves represent a trend, but I do believe they are indicative of the national mood that Trump has perpetuated since the day he rode down the escalator to declare his presidential candidacy.

These two fellows got into a beef over the Black Lives Matter movement and the behavior of police officers in relation to African-American citizens. One of them decided to “unfriend” the other from Facebook and vowed never to speak to him again. Not ever!

That outcome saddens me, as the two of them once were a lot closer.

This is the kind of thing that has erupted in families and other social circles nationally in this Trump Age.

Donald Trump promised to unify the nation. My goodness, he has done precisely the opposite. He has fomented division, increased the chasm between the political parties and his rhetoric has spawned the kind of anger — among family members, for criminy sakes! — that leads to severed relationships.

Social media haven’t helped, either. The various media have given us a shield behind which we can fire off angry messages, responses to messages, and responses to the responses. On it goes. It never ends.

I am acquainted with many individuals who become crazed ideologues when they sit behind a keyboard. For all I know, many of my friends think the same thing of me. If so, well … too bad.

Others, though, have actually become different people than I know them to be. One of my former friends cut our relationship off after he and another member of my family got into a snit about something; I cannot remember what it was. I took up for my family member. My friend became highly agitated with me — and we parted company. We haven’t spoken since.

These examples are what I am talking about.

Politics isn’t supposed to be a contact sport. At least that is what I long have thought and believed. At some level I still do. I choose not to engage good friends — actual friends — and family members in the nuts and bolts of policy disagreements. I try the best of my ability to let it all roll away.

It’s tough, especially in this Age of Donald Trump.

Thanks, Mr. President, for “unifying” us … my a**!

military news

Honoring an Army ‘loser’?

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am not proud of the thought that entered my mind when I heard the news, but I want to acknowledge it nonetheless.

Donald Trump draped a Medal of Honor around the neck of Army Sgt. Major Thomas P. Payne, honoring the recipient for the astonishing heroism he exhibited while rescuing hostages being held by Islamic State terrorists in Iraq.

Sgt. Major Payne is the real thing. He deserves the honor he received today in a ceremony that had been scheduled long before another story broke recently.

It was the report in The Atlantic that Trump has referred to men and women in uniform as “suckers” and “losers.” Trump denies saying those hideous things, which one would expect to hear from the commander in chief.

But the thought immediately was this: Did the sergeant major recall any of those ghastly views attributed to Trump while he was being honored for the astonishing battlefield heroism he displayed?

Sgt. Major Payne is, as Donald Trump described him today, “one of the bravest men anywhere in the world.” If only this ceremony wasn’t sullied by remarks attributed to the commander in chief.

Sgt. Major Payne’s heroism, despite the backdrop, stands alone.

Thank you so much for your service to the nation, Sgt. Major.

medical news

Trump lives in parallel universe

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump’s existence in a parallel universe simply is something to behold.

Here’s the latest. Trump said the United States has “turned the corner” on the coronavirus pandemic and is hurtling toward something resembling a normal life prior to the pandemic’s arrival.

Not so fast, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and a key member of the White House coronavirus pandemic response team. We haven’t turned anything like a corner, Fauci said. He explained that the infection and death rates continue on their upward trajectory.

“I have to disagree with that,” Fauci said of Trump’s assessment.

This is precisely what many of us have been saying about Trump’s inability to speak the truth about matters that demand only the truth. Accordingly, Trump the politician cannot be trusted to tell us the truth when he is in the midst of a political campaign in which he is fighting desperately to keep his job.

It is no great scoop to realize that Trump thinks first of his political fortunes. The rest of us? Hah! Trump will continue to soft-pedal the consequences of the pandemic for as long as he continues to run for re-election.

Here, though, is the real rub: Trump’s base of supporters will believe the self-serving politician before they trust the learned opinion of a man who has spent his entire adult life waging war against infection diseases. They will forgo masks in large gatherings of fellow Trumpkins. They won’t heed the advice of Dr. Fauci and other medical experts who warn them of what can happen to them if they fail to follow proper preventative measures.

Trump will continue to lie about “turning the corner.” Medical experts such as Dr. Fauci will seek to correct him. Trump won’t care what the experts say. The experts will continue issue warnings.

Parallel universes remain impenetrable. In this instance they also are profoundly dangerous.

national news, Uncategorized

How does Trump keep it close?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s see how this looks.

Donald Trump has been impeached by U.S. the House of Representatives; he has insulted the military high command; he lets Russian spooks get away with putting bounties on our warriors; he admits to lying to Americans about the severity of the global pandemic; he has shattered our longstanding military and diplomatic alliances; he has presided over the greatest economic collapse in our nation’s history; he called Klansmen and Nazis “very fine people”; and he has lied about damn near every issue that he has (allegedly) confronted.

And still, this individual just might — even against these horrendous odds — wiggle/slither his way back for a second term as president of the United States.

How in the world might this happen, given Trump’s astonishing record as president of the United States? I cannot put my arms around this phenomenon. I am left to speculate that just possibly Americans have been snookered by the carnival barker who promised them to deliver salvation to a nation he said in 2016 had devolved into a “total disaster.”

And so here we are, four years later. The phony business executive not only has failed to deliver us from the illness that he vowed to cure all by himself, he has worsened it.

The pandemic has killed nearly 200,000 of us … so far. Trump has defamed war heroes and prisoners of war. He scolds our international allies. He has turned us from the world’s most indispensable nation to an international laughingstock.

How does he stay within spitting distance of Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee who by most objective measures should be running far away from Trump?

It’s a head-scratcher that utterly boggles my mind.

local news, State news

Puppy Tales, Part 87: Earning his spurs

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

TYLER STATE PARK, Texas — You know by now that Toby the Puppy is nearly perfect … if not actually perfect.

One of the aspects of his perfection is that he barks only for a reason. He doesn’t just yip and yap at nothing or nobody. Hardly. He barks when people approach our RV, or our house when we’re at home. He knows when one of us is away from the house and when we return that he doesn’t need to bark; Toby the Puppy simply assumes it’s either his Mother or me.

OK, that all laid out there, here’s a tale of how he put his bigger than expected bark to good use.

We were parked at Tyler State Park. We noticed a raccoon walking through our area. We watched as the ‘coon walked up to an RV a few spaces away from ours. This all happened just before dusk.

Then the sun went down and, without warning — and it was startling to hear — Toby the Puppy went absolutely ballistic. He barked, he snarled, he made noises that we had never heard him make. He was looking out the door of our RV into the dark.

I grabbed a flashlight and looked everywhere in our camp site at what might have caused Toby to go berserk. I found nothing. Then it occurred to me: Toby the Puppy scared that raccoon away!

I cannot prove that the raccoon ventured into our site that evening. I am left only with circumstantial evidence. We saw with our own eyes the raccoon snooping around our neighbor’s rig. Then it got dark and our pooch began snarling at a mystery object outside.

Two plus two does equal four, yes?

There you have it. Toby the Puppy has earned his keep as a supreme watchdog.

national news

9/11: Memory still burns hot

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It was 19 years ago when our lives changed possibly forever.

As I look back on that terrible Tuesday morning, I find myself swallowing hard. My throat develops that lump when I see the Twin Towers collapse onto the street in lower Manhattan. I have difficulty watching video of the men, women and children running for their lives.

Yes, our lives changed when we saw what happens when terror shows its ugliness. It did on that day in 2001.

Of course I remember that day. I remember my reaction when my colleague told me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I remember turning on the small TV in my office and watching in real time the second jetliner crash into the other tower.

Then the sh** hit the fan.

We went to war against the Taliban, against al-Qaeda, against any organization that sided with the religious perverts who struck at our heart. I have said for all that time that we may never be able to declare victory as we have done in many of our previous wars. I will stand by that assertion.

Pundits were enraged and expressed their rage with eloquence. I tried to bring my own meager talents into play. In reality, the attack stands alone as a testament to the cruelty that humankind can rein down on ourselves.

It doesn’t get any easier to recall that terrible day, the attacks on the Twin Towers, on the Pentagon and when those brave passengers aboard the jetliner crashed the airplane into the field, sparing yet another target from destruction.

I will get through the day after spending it thinking and remembering how our nation was alerted in the starkest terms imaginable to the danger that lurks all around us.

Donald Trump

Keeping up with scandals

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I consider myself to be a fairly astute current events follower.

I say that, though, even as Donald Trump’s campaign for re-election keeps flying into the ditch. So help me it’s hard to keep up with the mistakes and scandalous behavior that places Trump’s effort — for my money — in much-need dire peril.

The coronavirus pandemic erupted on Trump’s watch. He downplayed it publicly initially. He likened it to the flu. It has killed nearly 200,000 Americans and is making many more sick. The United States now has about a fourth of the world’s infection and death, which far exceeds our percentage of total population.

Oh, my.

Then he denigrates the service of men and women who are injured or die while fighting for our country. Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic quotes Trump as calling these brave Americans “suckers” and “losers.”

You want more? Then the president decides to suggest that the top men and women in our military command are in it for the money, that they want war because it keeps weapons makers in business. War profiteering? Really? He said that out loud, in public, all by himself.

Let’s arc back to the pandemic. Trump told Bob Woodward, the esteemed reporter and editor, that he downplayed the COVID-19 threat initially because he didn’t want to “panic” Americans. Meanwhile, he dawdles and dithers on our response, allowing thousands of Americans to get sick and die from the killer viral infection. Oh, but let’s not cause panic.

I am having trouble keeping up with all this stuff, man.

Of the recent tempests that have dogged Donald Trump, I guess you can settle on any of them as being potentially fatal to his re-election campaign effort.

For my liking, I am leaning toward how Trump is going to explain to us unwashed masses how he justifies lying to Americans about a pandemic he knew would kill thousands of us. How does he justify seeking to pacify a nation with false bravado?

Any one of those events might be enough to fill a nation with rage. Taken altogether? Donald Trump has his hands full.

environmental news

Where is the concern about fires?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I watch the news a good bit of every single day, so I am compelled to ask: Has Donald Trump said a word in public about the fires that are destroying homes along the Pacific Coast of the United States of America?

Has he offered a word of concern? Have there been expressions of sadness? Of empathy? Has he offered a full federal response to assist the states that are battling these fires?

If he has, then it got past me.

Hey, I know the states of Oregon, Washington and California all are governed by Democrats. Donald Trump once referred to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee as a “snake” back when Washington was ground zero of the growing coronavirus pandemic.

He chastised California officials for allegedly failing to enact sound fire-management strategies when that state erupted a year ago from wildfires.

Oh, and let’s not forget the invective Trump has hurled at Oregon Gov. Kate Brown over the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland that have turned violent.

So now the states are on fire. Flames have incinerated entire neighborhoods in the southern Oregon town of Phoenix. Firefighters are pushed to the limits of their endurance throughout California.

Where is the president of the United States? Hello, Mr. President? Your fellow Americans are suffering!

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