national news

Enjoying sight and sound of No. 44 on the stump

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I was proud to vote for Barack Hussein Obama when he ran for election and re-election as president of the United States.

And I will be candid: I miss him and wish there was some way he could still sit in the Oval Office. He cannot do that. The U.S. Constitution prohibited him from seeking a third term as president.

Now, though, he has back on the political stage, stumping for his “brother,” Joe Biden, who served as vice president during Obama’s two successful terms as president.

I admit as well to enjoying listening to the former president peel the hide off of his successor, Donald Trump, whose lies and misrepresentations seemingly have been more than President Obama can stomach.

I also wonder if Trump’s incessant attacks on Obama’s record, replete with their litany of lies, has gotten under the former president’s skin. If I had been the subject of those defamatory attacks, I know for damn certain I would be pi**ed off beyond measure.

Obama stood with former VP Biden today in Detroit, telling the horn-honking socially distanced audience what many of us already know: that Donald Trump is an abject failure as president. Obama wondered aloud about why Trump and his GOP cohorts, after 10 years of complaining about the Affordable Care Act, haven’t yet produced anything resembling a replacement. And yet, as President Obama noted, they want to toss aside health care insurance that many millions of Americans depend on during this pandemic crisis.

Amazing, yes? And stupid!

I know I am not the only American who has missed the sound of President Barack Obama’s voice, the tenor of his message or the sight of him laying waste to the unfit individual who succeeded him as president.

Welcome back to the battle, Mr. President.

local news, political news, State news

Texas sets the pace

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s not often I get to brag about the politics of the state of my residence.

I will take that opportunity to boast about a key development that has unfolded in Texas, where I have called home since the spring of 1984, when I moved my family here to take a job with a newspaper on the Gulf Coast.

The Texas Tribune reports that 9.7 million Texans voted early for president, or about 58 percent of all registered voters. Why is that reason to boast? The vote total exceeds the entire number of ballots cast during the 2016 presidential election. The percentage of turnout looks to be on pace to soar significantly past 60 percent of all voters when Election Day comes and goes next Tuesday.

My wife and I were among the 9.7 million fellow Texans who voted early. We cast our ballots on Oct. 13, the first day of early voting in Texas.

That day was a big deal for my wife and me. We usually vote on Election Day. The coronavirus pandemic — coupled with pleas from most Democratic politicians — persuaded us to vote early. We did so in Princeton, near our home. We took all the precautions called for: masks, social distancing, washed hands, sanitizer … you name it, we did it.

We got our votes cast and logged into the Collin County electronic system.

What fills me with pride is that Texas answered the call in a manner that set the pace for other states across the nation. We voted early because we felt concern about whether our ballots would be counted would we have voted by mail.

I long have hoped for the day when Texas could become a competitive two-party state, when it could break the Republican vise grip on the political structure. I don’t know if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win this state’s 38 electoral votes, but I feel confident in suggesting that they are going to be highly competitive on Election Day. Moreover, so will the myriad congressional and legislative races on the ballot as well.

My center-left political sensibility hopes the Biden-Harris ticket can win the state’s electoral votes and that Democrats can gain control of the Texas House of Representatives. If it happens that Biden-Harris carries the day at the top of the ballot, then it’s “game over” for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

To be sure, that would be enough to make me possibly shout my joy from the front porch of my home.

For now I will settle for the pride I feel that Texans have answered the call to vote early and possibly portending the kind of overall turnout that delivers Texas into a new political era.

national news

Will we know who won on Election Night?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have been rubbing balm on my trick knee to keep it from throbbing during this election season.

Now, though, I think it might be time to let my joints “talk” to me about what might happen when they count the ballots for president of the United States.

Here is what they’re saying:

They are telling me that we are going to have a winner declared sometime during the night. It could be in the wee hours. Or it might come much earlier than any of us expects.

How might we learn early? Joe Biden could pick off a few key swing states early — such as, oh, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and perhaps Georgia. Without Florida in the bank, Donald Trump has virtually no path to re-election.

Then there could be the shocker of all: Biden squeaking out a win in, gulp, Texas. The early vote here has been stupendous, with Democrats in Harris, Dallas and Travis counties rushing to vote early.

I say all this while resisting the urge to predict it will happen. The West Coast states of Oregon, Washington and California are in the bag for Joe. There’s also Nevada, New Mexico and Hawaii. Toss in Arizona and you’re looking at a possible Biden landslide.

Trump is talking up a big Election Day surge among Republicans. They might turn out en masse as well. Will it be enough to overcome the potential early vote surge we’ve seen in Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa where the COVID crisis also is surging? Time will offer an explainer.

My trick knee also could be sending me another sort of message, which is that Trump will enjoy enough of a surge at the end to squeak out an electoral college fluke that mirrors what transpired in 2016. That is the scenario that could keep the result in limbo for several days past Election Night.

OK, one more thought: If we know the evening of Nov. 3 or the early morning of Nov. 4, I believe Donald Trump will concede. He won’t do it in the normal way, offering his congratulations to the winner and promising his full support. He will surrender the White House with gritted teeth.

That’s my call and I’m sticking with it. Such as it is.

medical news, national news

Hey, Don Jr.: Shut … up!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump Jr. said what?

Let me see if I have this straight …

On a day when 1,000 Americans died from the coronavirus pandemic, Don Jr. told Laura Ingraham, a Fox News talking head, that pandemic deaths were “almost nothing.” Don’s dad, The Donald, has said pretty much the same thing, that we are “turning the corner” and that the pandemic “is under control.”

I’ve already implored Donald Sr. to keep his yapper closed, to leave the medical analysis to the scientists and assorted experts with whom he has surrounded himself. Dad ain’t listening to little ol’ me.

I don’t expect Junior to listen, either. However, I must pass along this bit of advice to the elder Know Nothing Son of the Know Nothing President:

Don Jr. … shut the f**k up!

State news

Fall back … and get set for the complaints

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Get ready for it.

Americans are going to “fall back” to Standard Time overnight and many of us are going to bitch to high heaven about having to change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time.

I want to be clear about two points.

One is that I don’t have a problem with changing back and forth. We advance the clocks an hour in the spring to commence Daylight Saving Time and then we set ’em back an hour in the fall to return to Standard Time. I hear it constantly: Oh, the time changes messes me up; it messes up the kids, too.

I cannot speak to the issues of parents with young children, since my own sons are grown; one of them has a young daughter, so he’s got to deal with her issues. As for me, I don’t have a problem with the time change.

I get why we have had Daylight Saving Time in the first place; it was to conserve energy, enjoy late-in-the-day daylight and refrain from turning on lights and consuming electrical energy. I actually like DST for that reason.

That said, if the Texas Legislature was able in 2019 to craft a change, I would have voted to keep DST on for the entire year. The Legislature sought to offer us a choice: full time DST, full-time Standard Time or keep the status quo by changing back and forth twice each year. The legislation didn’t make it out of the Legislature in time for a vote.

So, here we are. We’ll change back to Standard Time. The sun will rise in the morning a bit earlier but it will go dark earlier in the evening.

Yawn … and many of us will gripe about it. You won’t hear a word of complaint from me.

national news

Docs are conspiring?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I just picked my jaw off the floor.

Why did it fall so far? I just heard Donald Trump say out loud to a campaign rally that the nation’s doctors and nurses are conspiring to fake death counts by the coronavirus because they, um, get more money.

He said also that if we hear about deaths from the coronavirus that we shouldn’t believe what we are hearing. It’s all fake, says the president of the United States of America.

I am baffled. Flummoxed. Enraged.

Donald Trump’s lying has plunged to new lows and that, my friends, is saying patently frightening.

He says if people catch the killer virus, they aren’t likely to die. They’ll just get better; they become immune from further infection; they get on with their lives.

Oh, but wait: More than 1,000 Americans died yesterday from the coronavirus. How could that happen? Donald Trump says docs and nurses are faking it. The media are reporting “fake news.”

This individual is as despicable as they come. He needs to lose this election … bigly.

political news, State news

Yell it out: We’re No. 1

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Early voting in Texas has shut down and here’s the good news: Texans responded like champs to Democrats’ call for early voting.

We responded so well that the early vote totals have surpassed the entire number of ballots we cast in the 2016 election; and that includes Election Day voting four years ago.

So, what does that mean? On the surface it could mean that more voters who lean in Joe Biden’s favor have turned out to cast their ballots early. My ballot is among the more than 9 million already cast. Does the former VP have a majority of those ballots in his column? Beats me. We’ll find out in, what, four days.

Still, it warms my soft spot to know that Texas has set the pace nationally in responding to this early-vote call. It was done out of concern that Donald Trump’s re-election machine is going to muck up the ballot-counting of mail-in votes.

Democrats responded by imploring us to vote early. My wife and I did, even though we would have preferred to wait to vote in-person on Election Day. The COVID crisis, though, persuaded us to vote early and not risk getting a mail-in ballot caught up in the snail-mail delivery system.

Now comes the mad rush by the candidates — Biden and Kamala Harris on one side, and Trump and Mike Pence on the other — as they criss-cross the country in search of votes.

I am now going to relax just a bit over the next couple of days. Then I will await the returns to start pouring in on Election Night. Oh, how I want this election to turn out the correct way.

local news

We moved to a ‘battleground’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As if anyone needed to persuade me on how to vote for president of the United States … I now have learned that my wife and I have moved into a key “battleground” community in the fight for presidential power.

We now reside in Collin County, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas, which has been trending Democratic for the past couple of election cycles. That’s a big deal in Republican-leaning Texas.

Our little town (for now) of Princeton is seen as a prime battleground to be fought over by forces loyal to Joseph R. Biden and Donald J. Trump, the contestants for president.

Indeed, the ‘burbs all across the state have become prime targets of opportunity. Biden and the Democrats seem to think they can swing enough suburban voters — particularly among women — to make the state competitive. I can think of at least one suburban woman who has cast her lot with Biden and the Dems. Indeed, she is a true-blue Bidenista. How do I know?  I am married to her.

And so the fight for supremacy in Texas will rage over the weekend and into Tuesday morning, when the entire nation commemorates Election Day.

Make no mistake that we have been deluged with a flood of political ads, not just for president but for Congress, the Texas Legislature, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas Supreme Court. What’s more, Princeton is electing members of its City Council and its school district board of trustees; but those are non-partisan contests, so they’re off this blog post’s grid.

I am a tried-and-true political junkie. Thus, I rather like being the center of attention.

national news

TDS? Who … me?

5 Comments
(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A frequent and persistent critic of this blog has accused me of suffering from something called “Trump derangement syndrome,” whatever that means.

I don’t actually know this fellow; we’ve never met face to face, but he reads my blog and I presume he thinks he “knows” me better than most folks. Whatever.

I’ll cop to a couple of points he keeps making. He thinks I am driven exclusively by my “hatred” for Donald J. Trump. I won’t attempt to change his mind on that point, so we’ll just agree to disagree on this matter: I do not hate Trump; I do hate what he stands for, which to my eye is self-enrichment. To the extent that I hate the kind of presidency he has cobbled together, I will acknowledge that it has consumed me for the past, oh, four years.

There. I hope my critic will acknowledge my, um, acknowledgment. I won’t expect it.

I have sought to make this point about Trump, which is that my constant criticism of him is driven by my love for the United States of America. I am going to presume that the point has been lost on my critics, all of ’em!

I went to war for my country. I stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I will never “take a knee” during the National Anthem to lodge a political protest; it ain’t my style, man. I have voted in every presidential election since 1972. I pay my taxes on time; oh, and I have paid my “fair share” of taxes for as long as I’ve been a working stiff, unlike at least one prominent politician who happens to be seeking re-election to the nation’s highest office.

So, there you go. I am angry at Donald Trump not because I hate him, but because I love my country.

Are we clear on that? Good. Now, let’s get over this election.

religious news

Falwell Jr. sues Liberty U … for defamation? Eh?

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jerry Falwell Jr. is fighting back against the university his late father founded.

Someone will have to explain to me how this should play out.

Falwell once served as president of Liberty University, the school that his dad, Jerry Falwell Sr., founded. Junior got himself into a series of scandals and ethical difficulties, culminating in a picture showing him snuggling with a woman who is not his wife … with his pants unzipped.

Oh, we also have reports of his wife engaging in a sexual relationship with a pool guy who alleges that Junior actually watched the two of them taking part in naughty behavior. To think, then, that Falwell Sr. founded an organization called the Moral Majority.

Falwell now says the university defamed him and that he was dismissed unjustly from his post as head of the nation’s largest Christian institution of higher learning.

I am no fan of Falwell Jr., or his father for that matter. So I am not looking at this lawsuit story with a dispassionate set of eyes. I acknowledge my bias. Still, it seems to me — looking at this from some distance — that Falwell Jr. brought all of this trouble on himself with his rather strange behavior.

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