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Encounter proves a point

I am going to tell you about a brief — and fairly unpleasant — encounter I had with someone who believes retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is “an honorable man.”

This person delivered a bit of proof I sought to make in an earlier blog post.

It was a social media encounter. This person and I belong to the same Facebook group that features conservative commentary. She wrote something about Flynn being an honorable man. I responded that I don’t think he’s honorable. I said he lied to the FBI, he sought to persuade Donald Trump to declare “martial law” to keep his job after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and he led the “lock her up!” chant at the GOP convention in 2016, wanting Hillary Clinton to be jailed over the email matter.

My foe said Flynn had been “exonerated” on all the charges brought against him. Thus, according to my acquaintance, he is honorable.

Her final response to me was that I am a “Democrat” and I adhere to the “fake news” being peddled by progressives. I am “involved with their ideology.”

I had made a point in an earlier blog post about the impossibility of discussing policy matters with those who adhere to Trump’s Big Lie. I believe my latest foe has proved my point. I will engage this person any longer. I did think it was useful to make this point in another post on this blog.

Debate is impossible | High Plains Blogger

It’s not that I believe I am a brilliant thinker. It’s just that every now and again individuals rise to the occasion to make me seem a lot smarter than I actually am.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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SCOTUS deals blow to ex-POTUS

Part of me wishes I could have been in whatever room Donald Trump was in when he got word that the Supreme Court had delivered a potentially fatal blow to his cover-up efforts relating to the 1/6 insurrection.

More to the point, that same part of me wishes I could have heard his response when he learned that all three justices he nominated for the court voted with the majority in squashing the effort.

You see, Donald Trump expects the judges he nominates to be loyal to him, not to the law or to the Constitution.

The court ruled 8 to 1 to require the National Archives to turn over records to the House committee examining the insurrection. The only dissent came from Justice Clarence Thomas. As for Trump’s nominees — Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — well, they stuck with the law.

That’s how it should be.

According to NPR.org: The court’s order paves the way for the release of records from the National Archives. The records could shed light on the events that led to the riot by Trump supporters protesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden.

The high court said lower courts had determined that Trump could not claim “executive privilege” in hiding those records.

“Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump’s claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court’s decision,” the court said in its order.

Lifetime appointments to federal courts do have this way of freeing judges from a good bit of political pressure. That, too, is in keeping with what the founders had in mind when they wrote the Constitution. They were wise men.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Incursion = invasion

How about we cease the rhetorical pussyfooting regarding whether a nation stages an “incursion” into another nation’s territory, rather than a full-scale “invasion?”

I see no difference.

At issue is what Russian troops might be ordered to do now that they are massed along the country’s border with Ukraine. We hear about the 100,000 armed forces who reportedly are staging for some sort of military action against Ukraine forces on the other side of the border.

President Biden seemed to suggest that a mere “incursion” would result in a less-severe reaction from the United States than an invasion.

This is nonsense. I wish the president would cease seeking to make a distinction between the actions.

The first time I remember hearing the term “incursion” was in 1970 when U.S. troops moved into Cambodia during the Vietnam War. I had just returned from that conflict, and I was horrified then at the thought of our troops marching into another country to wage battle against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military forces.

My dog-eared American Heritage Dictionary defines incursion as “a raid or an invasion.” I guess, therefore, that the terms are interchangeable.

Whatever our response is to what the Russians do shouldn’t depend on the nature or the scope of their military action against another sovereign nation. My hope is that Joe Biden will establish that whatever economic sanction we level against Russia will be severe … no matter the level of the Russians’ military action.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Hold it together, ERCOT

It has gotten cold in North Texas, which by itself is no great shakes, except that our memories are fresh from what happened a year ago when the mercury fell to, um, really hideous levels.

The electrical grid failed. So did our water supply.

We aren’t nearly as cold in this third week of January 2022 as we were in the middle of February 2021, so I am not sitting on pins and needles … just yet.

Gov. Greg Abbott has promised that the lights will “stay on” this winter. So has the head of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Ditto for the folks who run the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the agency that manages our state’s power grid.

All I can say at this moment is: It had better hold up! Or else!

I don’t what the “or else” would produce. I just know that we’re still less than halfway through the winter season. Last year was a serious downer. None of us wants a repeat of the disaster that befell the state.

The pols who are responsible for ensuring we stay warm and watered don’t want it, either.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Wait for pandemic to ease

I want to offer a bit of unsolicited — and possibly unwanted — advice to those who worry about President Joe Biden’s dismal poll ratings.

Just be patient and wait for the coronavirus pandemic to loosen its grip on the national psyche.

I don’t have any solid evidence of this, but my strong hunch is that Americans have grown most weary of the constant bombardment of news about the pandemic and they — meaning we, in our family — are waiting anxiously for tangible relief from the effects of the disease.

The constant flood of frightening news surely has an impact on our collective state of mind and our emotional stability. It surely must translate to our feelings about how our national government is doing in its pledge to protect our health, welfare and our pursuit of happiness.

President Biden promised we would declare our “independence” from the virus by the Fourth of July 2021. It didn’t happen. Obviously! Many Americans remember what the president said then and are holding it against him that he was unable to deliver on that pledge. It’s not fair. It’s just the way it is.

Our government’s initial response in early 2020 was horrendous. If we take cold, hard look at what we did or didn’t do then, we can presume correctly that President Biden inherited a mess and has sought to straighten it out. He hasn’t done nearly as well as many of us hoped he would.

Now he is paying the political price.

So, the future could hold a critical key to Joe Biden’s political survival. If the pandemic starts to recede — and soon! — then I have good reason to believe we could witness a historic revival in the president’s standing among American voters.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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I hear ya, Joe

Mr. President, allow me to say that I happen to agree with you about one aspect of the presidency that has dragged your approval rating down among Americans across the land.

I also agree that I — along with others of us — didn’t anticipate the stubborn refusal of Republican members of Congress to work with you for the common good of all of us. I mean, so help me, I actually thought that your experience as a senator and your eight years as vice president would have bought you some good will once you took over the presidency from the fraudulent imposter who occupied the office for the four previous years.

I have seen the video of Republicans and Democrats singing your praises in the Senate near the end of your term as VP. For God’s sake, even Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said it was a pleasure to work with you. What’s he doing now? He is standing in the way of damn near everything you are trying to do.

The moron you succeeded keeps hurling epithets at McConnell, but the senator won’t accept the notion that POTUS No. 45 is unfit for office and must be derailed in his attempt to influence the political discussion going forward.

Then again, Mitch isn’t the worst of ’em. The idiot brigade among the GOP congressional caucus is being led by the likes of Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida. I could go on, Mr. President, but you get my drift, right?

I am going to stand with you, sir. I voted for you, and I am proud of my support for the agenda you are pitching. Be strong, Mr. President.

It well might be that the obstructionists in Congress will realize they are harming their own base. As you know, these tactics have this way of exacting revenge on those who enact them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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‘I don’t believe the polls’

(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Let us be clear about something President Biden said today at his first formal press conference of the new year.

He said he doesn’t “believe the polls” that indicate moderates are dropping away from him after they voted for him in 2020.

Uh, Mr. President? Believe the polls, sir.

I understand that all politicians say such things when the public opinion polling casts them in a negative light. When pols are riding high, then the polls become pearls of wisdom and discernment.

Indeed, Donald Trump constantly railed at the polls that showed him continually lagging in overall public support. He would suggest that crowd size at his rallies put the lie to those polls. Well … they were accurate, too.

President Biden is being victimized by the continuing pandemic, inflation, pressure from overseas adversaries. However, the economy isn’t in nearly the dire straits that his foes have suggested.

Yet, the polls continue to show him lagging among some key voting blocs.

The only course for President Biden is for the polls to start ticking back up. How does that happen? He needs to pitch strongly the successes he has produced during his first year in office.

For instance, jobs are coming back. Almost nothing soothes a restive public better than a vibrant economy. Joe Biden’s economic team can take some credit for the rebound that is occurring.

If the polls show some improvement, my hunch is that President Biden will learn immediately to endorse the wisdom of his fellow Americans.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Dak offers real apology

Dak Prescott came under intense fire for a comment he made after the Dallas Cowboys blundered their way into a first-round professional football playoff loss.

He seemed to endorse the notion that it was all right for unhappy fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to throw debris at officials who, in their eyes, gave the game to the San Francisco 49ers.

Then came what I believe was a first-rate apology from the Cowboys’ quarterback. He said he is sorry for his remark. He didn’t offer one of those phony “if I offended anyone” non-apologies. Oh, no. Prescott stepped up and said he blew it.

He said this, via Twitter: “That was a mistake on my behalf, and I am sorry.”

I am willing, therefore, to offer a bit of grace to the young man.

I don’t really care about whether the Cowboys will ever win another Super Bowl. Sure, I live in the Metroplex and I am bombarded with Cowboys news all the time by local media. I get that.

However, I do care when young, highly paid professional athletes are able to act like grownups after they blurt out regrettable statements. Dak Prescott demonstrated to me that he is a grownup and I hope that this tempest blows over quickly.

I believe it will, largely because the man at the center of it offered a sincere apology.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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News gets tiresome

My name is John and I am a news-a-holic. With that introduction, I am declaring a certain addiction I have to the consumption of information about my world. I cannot help myself. It is who I am.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I want to declare my news fatigue over the reporting of the COVID-19 pandemic, the coronavirus crisis and all the assorted variants of the disease that have sprung up around the world.

They have exploded in India, South Africa and have traveled around the world in — snap! — just like that. The disease and its variants have consumed broadcast, cable and streaming networks, not to mention the printed pages of newspapers, magazines and assorted journals.

I cannot quite put my arms around this story. I haven’t yet grown tired of the congressional hearings examining the 1/6 insurrection, which I consider to be an existential threat to the very government I and others cherish.

The pandemic coverage is becoming tiresome.

I say that knowing that members of my family have contracted the disease. One family member was in serious condition in a hospital for a month; we could have lost her. Several friends of mine have died from the disease. I have skin in this game.

However, I am weary of hearing so much about the disease. Yes, some of the news of the past few days has been heartening to some extent, with reports of cases diminishing and projections from health experts that we might be able to live with the disease the way we live with, say, the flu or the common cold.

I will continue to be an ardent consumer of news. I won’t apologize for that addiction. Nor will I say I’m sorry about growing weary of the bombardment about the pandemic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Legal team gets the summons

The subpoenas are rolling out with increasing frequency from the House of Representatives select committee charged with getting at the cause of the 1/6 insurrection.

The panel has issued summons for Rudy Giuliani and three other lawyers who are close to Donald Trump. The truth about them — in my view, at least — is that they are lousy lawyers, but they do have some information, apparently, that is germane to the investigation that is under way.

I don’t expect them to comply. They are likely to face contempt of Congress charges along with other Trumpkins who’ve been subpoenaed.

Here, though, is my fundamental question: If they have nothing to hide, why in the name of juris prudence would they resist talking to the panel?

The Hill reports: The subpoena to Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and close Trump adviser throughout his presidency, focuses both on his ability to offer insight into the former president state of mind in the days surrounding Jan. 6 as well as his work pushing claims of election fraud in appearances on television and in court rooms across the country.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/590275-jan-6-panel-subpoenas-rudy-giuliani-sidney-powell

The House committee, chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is facing what could be called a “target-rich environment.” Giuliani has been at the forefront of efforts to promote The Big Lie alleging voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election — and which was the root cause of the insurrection that stormed Capitol Hill in an effort to block the certification of the election’s result.

For his part, Trump continues to insist that The Big Lie is true. It isn’t. It is a lie that comes from the Liar in Chief. Trump cannot — or will not — tell the truth on anything at any level. His legal team led by the former New York City mayor, Giuliani, does his bidding, which by itself is the way that lawyer-client relationships are supposed to function.

However, by doing what his client orders him to do, Giuliani becomes a critical witness in an investigation that aims to find the truth behind a full, frontal assault on our democratic form of government.

That cannot be allowed to stand.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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