national news

Biden builds a presidency … and burnishes legacy

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Watching Joseph R. Biden Jr. build his presidency is like watching someone come of age in real time.

You see, I’ve been acutely aware of this individual almost since the time I became involved actively in a political campaign on the other side of our vast nation. Biden got elected to the U.S. Senate in Delaware in 1972; while he was celebrating that victory, my friends and I were licking our wounds out west in Oregon while our presidential candidate, George McGovern, was suffering a monstrous landslide defeat at the hands of President Richard Nixon.

Yes, I watched the young senator go through the personal agony of losing his wife and infant daughter in a car crash before he would take office. I watched him assume his senatorial duties and then grow into the job he inherited.

Over the years I became aware of the leadership roles he assumed as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I watched him pontificate incessantly at times during committee hearings. I winced on occasion as he would bloviate past the time allotted to him.

Then I watched him run for president in 1988, only to crash and burn when he was caught copying remarks from a British politician and using them while trying to tell his own life story. The guy I supported that year for the Democratic nomination, Michael Dukakis, would suffer a landslide loss to Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Sigh …

He ran again for president in 2008 and then got thumped by the eventual nominee, Barack H. Obama … who then selected Biden to run with him as vice president.

And now he has won the highest office, grabbed the brass ring.

Hey, I am sitting now in the middle of what they call Flyover Country. I live in Texas, one of the most reliably Republican states in America. My pride in watching Joe Biden ascend to the highest office hasn’t abated one little bit.

It’s almost as if I am watching someone I “grew up with” along the way. I was barely old enough to vote when Joe Biden won his first federal office in 1972; heck, he wasn’t even old enough to assume his Senate seat until he turned 30 two weeks after that election.

Time has marched on. I am proud of Joe Biden, of his tenacity and of the courage he has exhibited while picking himself up after falling short of his aspirations. I believe the setbacks — and, yes, the tragedy — he has endured have prepared Joe Biden well for the challenges that lie ahead.

State news

Texas AG goes to war with Austin

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seems to suffer from a lawsuit fetish.

He has sued the city of Austin for having the temerity to refuse to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s lifting of a mask mandate. You see, it seems that Austin Mayor Steve Adler doesn’t want to lift the requirement in the city he governs.

Paxton, though, is wagging his proverbial finger at Adler and the city because he supposedly warned them against resisting Abbott’s order. So now he’s taking them to court again, Paxton said via Twitter.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Austin over mask mandate | The Texas Tribune

This clown we have for an AG is starting to annoy the daylights out of me. He tried to file a lawsuit that sought to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States, only to be rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court that said he lacked any standing to dictate how other states conducted their elections.

Now he’s at it again. Good grief, man.

The Texas Tribune reports: “[Travis County] Judge Brown and I will fight to defend and enforce our local health officials’ rules for as long as possible using all the power and tools available to us,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said Thursday in a statement. “We promised to be guided by the doctors, science and data as concerns the pandemic and we do everything we can to keep that promise.”

Meanwhile, the Texas AG will waste more money by filing lawsuits that seek to prevent local officials from doing what they deem is best for the people they take an oath to protect.

Donald Trump

No. 45 is popping off

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There he goes.

Donald Trump is trying to hog the glory of the success that has occurred since he left the office he once occupied.

Here’s what I “remember” about Trump’s time as president.

I remember him downplaying the severity of the pandemic. I recall how he said we could inject cleaning solution into our bodies and that the virus would “disappear.” I can remember how he called it a “Democrat hoax.” Oh, I also recall how he blew off the mounting deaths by declaring “It is what it is.”

The former Imbecile in Chief needs to go back on the golf course and keep his trap shut. He should stand by, though, and wait for the possible arrest warrants to be delivered.

media news

On a roll that keeps on rolling

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, everyone! I’m on a roll.

A while ago I posted an item on this blog about my approaching 600 consecutive days of posting. Well, I am now at 618 consecutive days … and counting.

I won’t go on and on about this feat. I just want to boast a bit that my volume isn’t abating. Not one bit.

The truth is I am blessed with a phenomenon that bloggers and other commentators occasionally find most rewarding. It is that I have a wealth of topics on which to comment. The cool aspect — one of the many such aspects — of running my own blog is that I work for no one but myself. That means the universe is open to me. So I get to write about it.

I admit that I don’t hit home runs every trip to the plate. I whiff on occasion. Hell, I might be whiffing with this brief comment.

But that’s OK. I am able to keep my streak alive for as long as I can.

Technical difficulties at times nearly get in the way of maintaining this consecutive streak. I had a close call just a few weeks ago. High Plains Blogger’s consecutive streak stayed alive.

So, with that I’ll keep on going. Thanks in advance for reading. You are most welcome to share this spewage whenever the spirit moves you to do so.

national news

Waiting for end to COVID carnage

(Photo by Pablo Monsalve / VIEWpress via Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The death rate from the COVID-19 virus is showing signs of abating.

It provides only a glimmer of hope, though, for those of us who want to stay the course in seeking to mitigate the damage done by the killer virus.

I keep reading about the progress we’re seeing with the increase in the daily rate of vaccination. It has exceeded 2 million doses daily. It is closing in on 3 million. President Biden promised to have 100 million Americans vaccinated during his first 100 days in office; it looks as though he will smash that projection.

I am thinking tonight of the “war on terror,” and wondering how we ever will be able to declare victory in that conflict. I don’t see it happening. Nor do I see it occurring any time soon in this war against the coronavirus. The pandemic has killed more than 525,000 Americans; more of us will succumb to the virus. Of that I am certain.

The war against international terror has now been handed off to the fourth commander in chief. It started under George W. Bush, continued under Barack H. Obama and then Donald J. Trump. Joe Biden likely won’t be able to declare victory against terrorists.

Nor will he likely be able to declare victory against the coronavirus pandemic. “Normal” will look like the new normal for a long time to come.

The death rate and the hospitalization rate, though, we all hope will continue to decline. I suppose I am left to place my faith that the continuing decline will give us reason to keep on fighting.

national news

Senate confirms AG … yes!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The United States finally has a new attorney general … who’s going to serve as the people’s lawyer, not someone who runs political interference for the president of the United States.

Welcome to the fray, Merrick Garland. A weary nation has been waiting for you.

The U.S. Senate voted 70-30 today to confirm Garland. It’s a good news/bad news kind of vote. The good news is that 20 Republicans crossed over to vote for the Democratic president’s nominee; the bad news is that 30 of them stayed on their side of the great divide and voted “no” on a man who is highly regarded as a brilliant and fair-minded legal scholar.

The Texas delegation in the U.S. Senate split on this one: Republican John Cornyn voted to confirm Garland while his fellow GOP colleague, Ted Cruz, voted against. Cruz’s “no” vote, I will venture a guess, likely was cast more out of petulance than principle.

Garland will succeed William Barr, who quit in the final weeks of the Trump administration out of anger over the way Donald Trump conducted himself leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection that Trump incited. The period before that, though, is what troubled so many of us, as Barr acted so much as though he was representing Donald Trump and not the interests of all Americans and the Constitution to which he swore an oath to defend and protect.

I do not believe we are going to have that issue with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Senate votes to confirm Garland as attorney general | TheHill

This is an important step in the reconstruction of a Justice Department decimated by Donald Trump and his legal eagle minions. Garland pledges to put the people’s interest front and center, that he won’t be bullied or coerced into making political decisions. “I am the United States’s lawyer. I will do everything in my power … to fend off any effort by anyone to make prosecutions or investigations partisan or political in any way,” Garland said during his eight-hour Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.

You know what? I believe him. I also believe he will restore the DOJ to the level of integrity, fairness and toughness that has been its hallmark. Our government needs that guarantee.

local news

Day One of ‘mask freedom’ has commenced

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The first day of some ill-conceived declaration of independence from mask-wearing has commenced and to be honest, it is just like all the other days we have lived with since, oh, for about the past year.

My wife and I went to our neighborhood grocery store in Princeton, Texas. We donned our masks. I scanned the store and noticed just about everyone else wearing masks, too. It gives me some measure of hope that most Texans are going to keep on keeping on with the masks and social distancing … regardless of the proclamation from Gov. Greg Abbott that he is lifting the mask order.

You can count me as one of the majority of Texas residents who still have concern that the mask-lifting order is premature. Abbott said Texans know what to do. Sure they do. I am hoping they continue to demonstrate their willingness to actually do what they know to be correct. This first day gives me reason to hope.

However, I also remain concerned that Abbott’s effort to gin up business activity had to include this lifting of the mask order.

In a related matter, I also am going to shy away from using the word “anniversary” to mark the year that has passed since the COVID virus was declared a pandemic. You celebrate joyous events with the word “anniversary.” This doesn’t qualify.

For now, I will go about my day the way I have been living every day since the pandemic gripped the nation by the throat. I don’t know when I’ll resume what we used to know as “normal” living.

State news

Humanity = open borders? Hardly!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has gone full-throated demagogue in his war of words with President Biden.

He accuses Biden of not caring about Americans because his immigration policies are a good bit more humane than those of his presidential predecessor, Donald John Trump.

That is a foolish assertion and Abbott ought to know better. Well, he does know better. It’s not in his political interest, apparently, for him to acknowledge it.

Abbott went to Mission today to announce a program called Operation Lone Star, which aims to ramp up arrests of undocumented immigrants seeking entry into the United States.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott slams President Joe Biden’s immigration policies | The Texas Tribune

What, precisely, did the Biden administration do to incur Abbott’s demagogic wrath? It has sought to enact a more “humane” policy, which has spurred an increase in immigrants trying to crash into the country. As the Texas Tribune reports:

The Biden administration has acknowledged that the increase in migrants coming to the border is, in part, a result of new policies intended to be more humane toward migrants and asylum seekers. That’s especially true of unaccompanied minors, said White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki.

“Humanity will always be a value,” she said during a press briefing Tuesday. “What we’re really talking about in terms of the people who are being let in are unaccompanied children. That is a policy decision which we made because we felt it was the most humane approach to addressing what are very difficult circumstances in the region.”

Abbott said this, according to the Tribune: “He does not care about Americans. He cares more about people who are not from this country” said Abbott, who spoke in front of a wall of Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles parked near the banks of the Rio Grande in Mission.

Once again, Abbott is tossing out the “open borders” canard. The border isn’t “open,” governor. The presence of border security guards should tell everyone the truth about what is happening on our southern border.

State news

Death penalty for abortions? What the … ?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Suppose for a moment you’re a woman who’s just been attacked in your home by a man who rapes you.

You learn a bit later you’re pregnant. You are single, you might be unemployed. You live hand to mouth. You cannot possibly care for a child.

You consult with a doctor. You pray to God and ask for forgiveness. Then you obtain an abortion. Under a bill filed by state Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Royse City Republican serving in his first term in the Texas Legislature, you have just committed a capital offense; so has the doctor who terminated your pregnancy.

Under Slaton’s outrageous bill, this woman and her doctor could be prosecuted and, if convicted of murder, could be executed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Wow! I cannot fathom a more astonishing piece of legislation. Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, given the vise grip that the right-wing lunatic fringe has clamped on the Texas Republican Party.

Texans who get abortions could face death penalty if proposed bill passed | The Texas Tribune

This is where I must stipulate that the U.S. Supreme Court, the final arbiter of all things constitutional and legal, has ruled that women are entitled under the Constitution to terminate a pregnancy. Is it the preferable solution to any crisis a woman might be experiencing? No. It isn’t. However, it is a legal remedy.

Therefore, that is why I consider Rep. Slaton’s bill to be utter nonsense.

The Texas Tribune reports: “It is time for Texas to protect the natural right to life for the tiniest and most innocent Texans, and this bill does just that,” Slaton said. “It’s time Republicans make it clear that we actually think abortion is murder. … Unborn children are dying at a faster rate in Texas than COVID patients, but Texas isn’t taking the abortion crisis seriously.”

Now, that is rich, for Slaton to suggest that COVID patients are dying at a slower rate than unborn children. My goodness! The aim is to eliminate COVID deaths altogether. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do? And by all means, we should make abortion as rare as possible.

The Tribune also reports: The legislation, filed Tuesday by state Rep. Bryan Slaton, does not include exceptions for rape or incest. It does exempt ectopic pregnancies that seriously threaten the life of the woman “when a reasonable alternative to save the lives of both the mother and the unborn child is unavailable.”

This bill has been floated before. It has sunk in previous legislative sessions. The idea of sentencing a woman to death because she cannot — for whatever reason she deems important — carry a pregnancy to full term is outrageous on is face.

International news

What do we make of Harry and Meghan?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Much of the world is all agog at what it heard from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex this past weekend.

Harry and Meghan dropped plenty of live grenades on the UK’s royal family. I’ll be honest: We aren’t talking much about what they said in our house. Neither my wife and I are “royal watchers,” although I must admit to a certain fascination with what some members of Her Majesty’s family have said and done.

Of all the live ordnance dropped on the royals, the most disturbing — and arguably the most jaw-dropping — were the conversations that allegedly occurred with some members of the family about baby Archie. Some of the royals reportedly expressed some, um, concern that the little guy would be too dark to suit the royal family.

You see, Meghan is a biracial young woman — her mother is African-American and her father is white. Harry and Meghan won’t disclose who among the family spoke to that issue, although Harry has said it wasn’t grandma, the Queen, or grandpa, Prince Philip,

Still, that leaves a wide range of folks who have revealed a terrible secret about the royal family, which is that one or more of them are hideous racists.

As you can expect, that didn’t go over well with either Harry, or especially with Meghan.

The fascination with the British royal family will bubble and boil for a long time. It’s the nature of humankind’s affinity for royalty. I prefer to consider the royals, based on what Harry and Meghan told Oprah Winfrey in that astonishing interview, to be just like too damn many of the rest of us.

I am now going to resume the rest of my own life.

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