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I salute my favorite veteran

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My favorite veteran would be 99 years of age had he been given more time on this good Earth.

He died 40 years ago. Peter John Kanelis was just 59 years of age when he perished in a freak boating accident up yonder in British Columbia.

I have saluted him already on this blog as we commemorate Veterans Day. I’ll do so again simply by thanking him for imbuing in me a sense of duty to my country. He exhibited the meaning of answering the call to duty on arguably one of the darkest days in U.S. history.

Japanese warplanes attacked our fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Dad, who was just 20 years of age then, was listening to the radio reports of what had occurred. He got up from his chair and left my grandparents’ house in Portland, Ore. Dad ventured downtown to the armed forces recruiting station. The Marine Corps office was closed that Sunday, so he walked across the hall to enlist in the Navy.

Roughly two months later, Dad reported for duty and went to war, joining 16 million Americans to fight tyranny around the world.

Dad taught me implicitly years later about duty and honor and love of country. He didn’t generally volunteer much of about what he endured in the Mediterranean Theater of operations; I would ask him and he would talk about it. He was proud of the service he delivered to his country.

I am proud of him to this day. I also am proud of all the members of the Greatest Generation who triumphed over tyranny as well as all who served — and are serving in defense of this great nation.

If you see someone you recognize as a veteran, thank him or her. I do so regularly … in honor of my favorite veteran.

national news

Give it up, Mr. POTUS

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

OK, Mr. President, I have resisted directing my remarks directly to you.

I get that you don’t listen to anyone, let alone actually read this blog. I just have to get something off my chest.

Let me be crystal clear: You lost the election to Joe Biden. I get that you decided long ago to toss aside tradition. I remember what you said about being an “unconventional” candidate and president. Boy howdy, you’ve kept that promise, even as you have trashed the office you inherited.

This idiocy you are fomenting about an electoral theft that didn’t occur is dangerous, it is shameful, it embarrasses this nation around the world. You are putting the nation’s security at risk by refusing to give the president-elect the briefings he deserves as the next commander in chief.

Oh, and your decision to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper — through a Twitter message, no less — is yet another example of the ghastly manner you choose to govern.

I make no apology to anyone for my loathing of you as a person, let alone as president of the United States. I have been blasting you to smithereens since the moment you rode down that escalator at Trump Tower with Melania at your side.

I want you out of sight and out of mind. I want you to vacate my house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I want you to accept the result of the defeat you suffered.

Don’t you get it? A clear majority of American voters are sick and tired of your yammering, your petulance, your boorishness.

Get the hell out of the way and let the new team take over.

There. Now I feel better. It won’t do a damn bit of good, other than to assuage my intense anger at the way you are behaving.

Good fu**ing riddance … Donald!

national news

Outrageous reaction to electoral loss

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The English language has few words that adequately express the feelings that boil up inside me as I watch Donald Trump and his minions challenge the results of a free and fair presidential election.

Now we hear from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denies that President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump. Pompeo says he is planning to work in a “second Trump administration.”

Earth to Mike: There will be no “second Trump administration.” Trump lost the election. The court system will not back up the specious complaints that Trump is leveling that that the election was “stolen” from him. Donald Trump will have to face the reality that President-elect Biden defeated him handily — both in the ballots cast and in the Electoral College.

It is outrageous in the extreme that Republicans continue to stand behind a president who has lost an election.

As for Trump, he is inflicting untold damage to the very fabric of the democratic system of elections. He is challenging the integrity of a system he took an oath four years to defend and protect … for God’s sake!

We are witnessing an outrage of epic proportions, not just from the outgoing president, but from those who are endorsing his foolishness.

national news

Legislating involves compromise

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Yeah, I know … nothing about Mitch McConnell should surprise me.

Still, the message from the U.S. Senate majority leader given his longstanding relationship with President-elect Biden does raise my eyebrows.

McConnell is giving credence to the idiotic conspiracy theory being kicked out by Donald J. Trump that illegal voters carried Biden to the presidency. He is digging in his heels on whether to even offer a word of congratulations to the president-elect; McConnell had the chance today during a Senate floor speech to offer a good word to his “friend,” but he choked.

McConnell continues to behave in a manner that gives politics and politicians a bad name. As for Trump, he’s been a lost cause from the moment he rode down the escalator to announce his presidential candidacy. I am so glad he got beat.

I just wish McConnell would recognize the obvious and get behind the president-elect and declare his intention to actually work with Democrats in search of legislation upon which they all agree.

Isn’t that part of the oath he took?

national news

Evangelicals face a reckoning

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If there is justice lurking in the election returns that have produced a new president of the United States, it well might rest within the evangelical Christian movement.

I now shall explain.

Evangelicals lined up behind Donald J. Trump, a man without even a passing acquaintance with Scripture. He is an admitted philanderer and has acknowledged groping women, grabbing them by their genitals. More than two dozen women have accused him of various forms of sexual assault. He paid a porn star $130,000 to keep quiet about a liaison she said she had with the future president, who also has denied taking the tumble with her during a one-night stand.

They stood with him as he sought re-election. Trump lost that campaign, however, to Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic — the second Catholic ever elected president.

President-elect Biden is devoted to his faith. He attends Mass regularly. The president-elect has suffered unimaginable pain through death. He has buried two of his children, one an infant, the other an adult. His infant daughter died in a car accident that also killed his first wife and grievously injured his two sons.

The president-elect has proclaimed repeatedly over the span of time that his faith in God and his belief in eternal salvation carried him through his grief.

Still, the evangelical movement stood with the alleged sexual assailant and admitted philanderer.

Yes, if there is justice in these election returns, it should present itself with the evangelical Christian movement looking deeply into its political alliance with someone many of us consider to be downright evil.

national news

Incoherence anyone?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot possibly be the only person who thought this, but I’ll offer this brief observation anyway.

Donald Trump refuses to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, saying the election is “far from over.” He is filing lawsuits and challenging the results of an election that shows Biden leading with 5 million more ballots and a substantial Electoral College majority.

Got that? Now, then there’s this:

Donald Trump has told advisers and others close to him that he is considering whether to run for president in 2024.

When I heard that I went, huh? What? Eh? Which is it?

If he’s thinking about running in 2024, isn’t that a tacit admission that he lost the 2020 contest?

Therefore, what we are seeing from Donald Trump and his team is an incoherent, unhinged and baseless legal “strategy” that pretends to seek proof that the election was “rigged,” that it is “corrupt” and that millions of voters cast ballots “illegally.”

That well might sum up the presidency of Donald John Trump Sr. to the letter. 

national news

A ‘sucker’ is revealed

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

OK, it’s time for an admission.

I admit to being a sucker for what I had hoped would be a realization from Donald Trump — had circumstances dictated it — that he would bow out of the presidency with relative silence.

Not with class, dignity, decorum and grace, mind you. I thought he would simply say that “Joe Biden won; I lost. I will accept that and go on my way.” That’s all he had to say.

Donald Trump hasn’t said even that.

Oh, no. He is filing lawsuits left and right in states all across the country. He hasn’t called Biden to congratulate him. As a friend reminded me today, Trump hasn’t yet allowed the new president access to national security briefings, which is essential for a smooth transition from one presidency to the next one.

The peaceful transfer of power is likely to occur. I don’t expect there to be gunshots at the White House or on Capitol Hill when Trump leaves office on Jan. 20. What I had hoped for would be a semblance of the kind of traditional ceremony one sees in these moments.

You know what I mean. The Trumps welcoming the Bidens to the White House. The obligatory photo op meeting in the Oval Office. The two men saying publicly how they plan to cooperate. Trump pledging a seamless transition; Biden promising to ask his predecessor for advice as needs arise. The handshakes, the smiles … or what they refer to in newspaper circles as “grip and grin” photos.

We are getting none of that.

I didn’t expect Trump to offer the traditional concession speech. All I thought we might get would be a gritted-teeth admission that he lost.

My goodness, we have gotten none of it!

The impact of this hideous behavior from the lame-duck president could be devastating on our democracy. Nations around the world are going to look at us with even more skepticism as they watch the outgoing president challenge openly the very fabric of our democratic system of government.

My inclination to look for the good in individuals, even those who don’t necessarily deserve it, has been decimated by the behavior of a man about whom I should have known better.

I am ashamed of myself.

national news

This is how you conduct a ‘peaceful transfer of power’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I will be brief with this post.

I have included with these few words a video showing some recent transitions of power from one presidential administration to the next one. They include transitions from one political party to another.

They illustrate the greatness of this nation. They tell us how it usually is done. How individuals with competing world views can seek common good and show the world how Americans can set aside their differences to ensure seamless transfers of power.

Now we have Donald John Trump Sr. …

national news

Boorishness lives among GOP

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Boorishness is alive and well — dammit, anyway! — among Republican political leaders.

A Democrat has won an election for president. Do you think there would be any prominent Republican member of Congress who would deign to wish President-elect Joe Biden well as he begins to form a new government? Might there be a tide of good wishes coming from the “loyal opposition”?

One would think. Except that we’re now exiting the Era of Trump, the Sore Loser in Chief whose own brand of boorishness apparently has been spread to others in Capitol Hill.

OK, there are exceptions. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have extended their good wishes; so has Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. George W. Bush, the only living former GOP president, did so, too.

Donald Trump continues his futile attempt to sow discord among the GOP faithful by challenging the election results. He says he won’t concede. His pals in the Senate, led by Lindsey Graham, say a concession would doom the GOP to losses at the presidential election level forever. Good grief!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to say congrats; so has House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. A host of other GOP pols have endorsed Trump’s bogus assertions about widespread fraud and illegality.

President-elect Biden is left, therefore, to proceed apace with his own task of forming a government and getting to work.

We are witnessing yet another national disgrace courtesy of the clown who, thankfully, is about to exit the political stage.

Good … riddance!

national news

This drama will have a predictable ending

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Americans are witnessing an amazing dual-track drama being played out simultaneously by the winner and loser of the 2020 presidential campaign.

President-elect Joe Biden is proceeding as if everything’s hunky-dory with the result of the election. Indeed, it is in many of our minds. Biden has captured 279 electoral votes, enough to win the election; there will be more of them added to Biden’s total when the counting is completed. He has formed a coronavirus task force to begin working on possible solutions to the killer pandemic.

Biden meanwhile is looking at possible Cabinet appointees and other high-level staff positions in the White House.

Legal challenge? What legal challenge?

Meanwhile, Donald J. Trump is saying the election is “far from over.” He is mounting lawsuit upon lawsuit in courts across the land. He alleges the election was “stolen” from him by illegal voters. Proof? Evidence? There’s none to be found. Trump has failed to produce a shred of either. All he does is tweet out allegations with no basis in fact.

Adding to the chaos is that he fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper today, ending a lengthy feud that developed when Trump threatened to deploy active-duty military forces to put down protests of racial policy; Esper pushed back hard against that hare-brained and patently dangerous notion. Trump was enraged. Today he wacked the Pentagon boss. He’s gone.

I prefer to concentrate on the Biden approach to forming a new government. He is proceeding with all due diligence and care. He is getting his briefings on the pandemic and other national security issues. He knows how this goes. He’s been there before, having served for either productive years as VP in the Barack Obama administration.

This drama will end eventually. Trump will run out of legal challenges. Biden will continue apace to form a government. We’ll have a ceremony in Washington on Jan. 20. Biden will take the oath; whether Trump is present to witness it in person remains an open question … which, frankly, doesn’t concern me in the least.

Then the new president will go to work.

That’s how it is supposed to play out. Is this a great country, or what?

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