International news, national security

No worries, I will ‘never forget’

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I went to a ceremony this morning at Princeton City Hall where firefighters, police officers, local veterans and others gathered to recall the event that shaped our nation’s future.

It happened 21 years ago when hijacked jetliners flew into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and into that rural field in Shanksville, Pa.

No. We’ll never forget what we were doing that morning when we got the news about the terror attack on the country. It launched the global war against terrorism, a war we likely will fight for as long as Planet Earth exists.

I am sure the planet will be around long after you and I are gone.

We call it 9/11 these days. Just say “9/11” and everyone knows what you mean.

The good news is that our special forces have managed to take out the masterminds behind that attack. The bad news is that others have skulked out of the slime to replace them.

We must remain vigilant against threats that have existed all along.

And by all means we must “never forget” the unfathomable cost of what happens when we look the other way.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news, political news

Ukraine scores big on the battlefield

You may count me as one cheap-seat observer who isn’t totally surprised that Ukraine’s armed forces are repelling the advance of the illegal invaders from Russia.

After all, when the Russians invaded Ukraine six months ago, I noted that the Ukrainians are far from “defenseless.”

However, I am stunned at the level of success that Ukraine has scored. We hear from the battlefield that Russian forces are in full retreat and that Ukraine intends to take back territory captured by the Russians.

Does any or all of this mean that Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin is going to surrender? Hardly. It does open the door, though, for Putin to look for some sort of way to negotiate his way back to the Kremlin and get his forces out of danger.

We had heard from a number of key U.S. military geniuses who said at the outset of war that Russia’s conventional military force was overrated, that Russia was little more than a third-rate conventional military power. The Russians, though, do possess a substantial nuclear arsenal and there have been concerns expressed that Putin could deploy some of it to put down the Ukrainians.

He’s already a war criminal, given the casualties his forces have inflicted on civilians in Ukraine. I am not going to buy into the notion that he is utterly stupid enough to use nukes and prompt a response from Ukraine, which has a hefty nuclear arsenal of its own.

I am astounded, though, to see that U.S. and allied response in the form of military aid is paying huge dividends for the heroic Ukrainians who, after all, are fighting for the survival of their country.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, local news, national news

FBI scorned by GOP? Wow!

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I keep holding Ronny Jackson up for ridicule. Hey, I have good reason to do so. He represents a region of Texas and in just less than two years in office has managed to become a golden boy among right-wing media outlets.

Here is what Rep. Jackson, a Republican, said today via Twitter about the FBI.

I don’t trust anything that the FBI tries to pin on Trump. They are a rotten secret police force at the service of Biden’s hyper-political agenda. All lies and deception!

Hmm. The FBI no longer is dedicated to protecting our national security or rooting out corruption or solving federal crimes … or so says Ronny Jackson. It’s a tool of a Democratic president, he says.

This clown is unhinged.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Watch out for App State!

I am going to offer a bit of unsolicited advice to individuals who likely wouldn’t give a flying fudge what I think … but here goes anyway.

Next time big-school athletic directors schedule Appalachian State to play a football game against your nationally ranked college team, don’t consider these guys to be a “cupcake opponent.” They well could beat your guys.

Appalachian State did it again today, knocking off the No. 6-ranked Texas A&M University Aggies in College Station … in front of the 12th Man, aka the 100,000-plus Aggie fans who jam Kyle Field when the Aggies play football.

Does it sound familiar? It should. Appalachian State embarrassed the Michigan Wolverines in 2007, who were No. 5 when the underdogs ventured to The Big House in Ann Arbor. They came out victors.

Oh, and just this past week, Appalachian State scored 40 points in the fourth quarter and came within a whisker of beating North Carolina in the Tarheels’ crib.

Appalachian State is located in Boone, N.C. About 20,000 students are enrolled there, so it isn’t exactly a tiny school. It just isn’t known as a college football power.

Until now!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, crime news, national news, political news

How can GOP tolerate this?

I guess I’ll just have to resign myself to never knowing the truth while I am alive and breathing.

The “truth” to which I refer happens to involve how a once-great political party can be at one time a champion for “family values” and proclaimed that “character matters” can align itself with a cult figure who embodies the exact opposite of both principles.

Republicans today are wedded to the rubbish uttered, muttered and sputtered by Donald John Trump.

The thrice-married former POTUS has admitted to cheating on his first two wives and then paid a porn star $130,000 to remain quiet about a tryst she said she and the future POTUS had back in the old days. Trump denies the event occurred … but he paid her the money to keep quiet about it. Go figure.

I guess I should mention that the alleged tumble with the porn queen occurred just weeks after Trump wife No. 3 gave birth to his youngest son.

We are being flooded with information about the FBI search for top-secret documents taken illegally from the White House and socked away in the basement of Trump’s home in Florida. Republican response to it? Crickets, man.

In a way, though, the silence is a bit of a change in what had been the typical GOP response to allegations leveled against the former Cult Leader in Chief. Members of Congress had been quick to blame Democrats for “weaponizing” the process that resulted in two impeachments of Trump. I am hearing little justification for a POTUS taking those documents that belong to the public and do not belong to him.

Meanwhile, GOP congressional leaders remain shamefully silent as evidence piles up along several legal fronts. In Georgia, we hear about a grand jury taking testimony about Trump coercing state election officials to “find” enough votes to swing that state’s 2020 presidential election results to Trump’s favor. Does anyone in the GOP care about that?

Trump’s business is being probed for allegedly falsifying its assets in order to obtain loans. Are those the ingredients of a character-driven business empire?

The House select 1/6 committee is trying to finish its probe into Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Republicans don’t give a crap about that, either … except for the two GOP committee members, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

I do not understand what has happened to the Republican Party. I thought I might learn the answer before they threw me into the ground.

Silly me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, local news, medical news

Rep. Jackson sings a single note

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Ronny Jackson is becoming the master of a one-note samba, except that he’s terribly out of tune when he sings it.

Jackson is the Republican U.S. representative who lives in the Texas Panhandle. He’s a charter member of the Donald Trump cabal of cult kooks. As a physician assigned to care for the president, Jackson did that for Trump and for President Obama.

His time as the White House doc must make him — in what passes for his mind — an expert on the health of Trump’s presidential successor. Jackson keeps yammering about Biden’s mental acuity. He keeps saying incessantly that President Biden needs to submit to a cognitive ability test.

Bullsh**!

Jackson is no more qualified to question Joe Biden’s mental fitness for the job than I am. He’s never seen the president’s medical record. He’s never examined him. Jackson has never consulted with the president. Indeed, the idiot Trumpkin spends a good portion of his day appearing on right-wing media outlets and putting out Twitter messages talking about matters — such as Biden’s health — about which he knows nothing.

Here’s an idea: How about crafting legislation that will do some good for the Texans he represents in Congress?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news, International news

Will the king follow the queen’s example?

Queen Elizabeth II established many hallmarks that set her apart during her 70-year reign as the United Kingdom’s monarch. One of them was her reticence to get involved politically.

As near as anyone could tell, Her Majesty kept every single opinion she had on pressing issues of the day to herself. She chose to keep the most private counsel possible.

She is now gone, of course. King Charles III has ascended to the throne. His Majesty has spent a good bit of his life getting involved — deeply, I should add — in matters that affect the entire world. I am thinking of this moment of climate change. He also has been outspoken about HIV/AIDS research and, while he was married to his first wife, Princess Diana, in the proliferation of land mines left behind after conflicts around the world.

These all are noble causes that deserved royal attention and his great and eternal credit, the king lent his name to those efforts.

As an outsider looking in from far away, I am left to wonder now whether King Charles III will use his even more elevated platform to continue the fight against climate change. Or will he follow his dear Mum’s example and step away, seeking to preserve the standing she enjoyed as the universally loved and admired British monarch?

On the matter involving climate change, I hope he chooses the former path and continues to lend his considerable standing to the planet’s greatest existential threat.

We only have one planet to inhabit. We need to take care of it. Your Majesty, lend your voice to that battle.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, national news, political news

Go ahead, Mr. POTUS, invite Donald

Protocol at times can be cause for heartburn, perhaps even a sleepless night or two.

President Biden has been invited as our head of state to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, set for Sept. 19. The royal family has left it up to all the invitees to determine who will accompany them to the funeral.

OK, so you might be wondering: Does the current president invite his immediate predecessor to accompany him to London to say farewell to the universally beloved queen?

My take? Sure. Why not?

You also might be wondering: Would Donald J. Trump accept such an invitation? 

My guess? Not in a zillion years.

Joe Biden is a firm believer, it appears, in presidential tradition and custom, unlike his immediate predecessor. So, it would seem only fitting for the current president to include all the living former presidents to join him. Indeed, all these men — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump — met with the queen during their times in office. They all have issued gracious statements in response to the death of the UK’s longest-serving monarch.

Trump, though, presents a unique set of issues. He hasn’t yet even acknowledged publicly that he lost to Biden. He continues to foment The Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” that did not exist during the election. He has suggested he would issue blanket pardons for the treasonous assailants who attacked the Capitol on 1/6 were he sent back to the White House.

The evidence is mounting damn near daily that an indictment or three awaits the ex-POTUS for his role in inciting the violence on 1/6, not to mention the discovery of top-secret documents in the basement of his home in Florida. Sheesh …

Does he intend to play second-fiddle to Joe Biden on Air Force One? No way, man!

I believe President Joe Biden would be smart to extend the invitation … and then let Donald Trump live with the consequences of declining it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, national news, political news

Yeah, Donald, keep blathering

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I am going to steal a thought that appeared first on social media from a member of my family.

My cousin Jim posted an item I want to share: And he recently referred to the sitting president of the United States as the “Enemy of the people.” In Russia, one would disappear after such a comment.

Indeed, think about the idiocy of Donald Trump’s latest rant about the man who defeated him soundly in the 2020 presidential election.

He calls President Biden the “enemy” after Biden rolled up 81.2 million votes, 7 million more than Trump collected, with a 51% majority of all votes cast.

Doesn’t the ex-POTUS understand the irony of making such a hideous statement? In Russia, which is governed by his good buddy Vladimir Putin, he would have been arrested and thrown into some gulag in Siberia simply by making such a ridiculous assertion. And, no, there is no guarantee in Russia of “freedom of speech or expression.”

I know the answer to the question I posed. Trump cannot think at all beyond his own narcissistic desires. Mention the word “irony” to Trump and you might as well be speaking Martian to him.

This individual is a disgrace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Astonishing display of love

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I haven’t had much exposure to monarchies over the years I have been able to travel. I’ve been to Thailand a couple of times, to Denmark, and, yes, to Great Britain.

They all share something in common, besides being ruled by royalty: One doesn’t hear public criticism of the ruling monarch.

The world is now mourning the death of someone who could be called Earth’s reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth II is being heralded as the worldwide grandmother, a symbol of peace and stability. Indeed, I have heard some commentators refer to her as “the perfect monarch.”

She kept her opinions to herself, unlike the son who succeeds her, King Charles III, who for many decades has been a staunch advocate for measures to curb climate change.

I am continuing to relish the universal love that is pouring forth as the world mourns Her Majesty’s death. It has given me a wonderful respite from the nastiness that usually pervades the headlines and dominates our broadcast and cable news coverage.

It’s just so rare to experience the love that is being showered on the memory of a woman who stood at the center of the public’s attention for 70 years. May she continue to stand there for a while longer as we prepare to bid her farewell.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience