national news

Turning the page already

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Just as President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. urged us earlier this week to “turn the page,” I am happy to report that I am beginning that process already in my own head and heart.

Biden’s comment came after the Electoral College certified his victory on Nov. 3 over Donald J. Trump. The states’ electors gathered in their respective capitals and cast their votes. Biden got 306 electoral votes; Trump earned 232 of them.

Game over. No more challenges to file. No more court battles to wage. No more insistence that the election was “rigged.”

It’s time to turn the page, as the next president urged us.

I have said already that I intend to look more toward the future than to the past. That doesn’t mean I will ignore the rants coming from Donald Trump. It means only that my focus will be more toward what I hope will be a fresh start with the incoming presidential administration.

I am turning the page. Perhaps it’s a bit slow to turn, but it’s turning. Time to move on and for the new president to get to work. Joe Biden has quite a bit of damage to repair.

International news

Where is POTUS’s outrage now?

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As the president of the United States continues to rant and rail against the democratic process in this country, an avowed foe of the country he was elected to govern has been revealed to have hacked into several federal government agencies.

Have we heard a peep from Donald J. Trump? Has the president signaled any sort of public anger at what the Russians have done — again! — in their ongoing assault on our governmental infrastructure?

The answer is as obvious as it gets. No. He hasn’t said a word publicly about it. Donald Trump has expressed zero outrage. He has remained silent, just as he did when it was reported that Russian goons were paying Taliban terrorists bounties for Americans killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

It has been abundantly clear to me and others that Trump might pretend that he won the 2020 presidential election, but his lack of action on any manner of important matters suggests he has taken leave of his duties … not that he ever paid much attention to the myriad details of his job.

Donald Trump will disgrace Americans for as long as he occupies the presidency. The clock is ticking on his exit.

national news

No ‘war’ on Christmas

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Of all the phony, ridiculous and bogus campaign pledges that Donald J. Trump made on  his way to the White House, the one that sticks in my craw is his promise to restore the greeting “Merry Christmas” to our vernacular.

You recall that, right? Donald Trump fomented the phony conservative mantra that liberals/progressives were in cahoots with non-Christians to declare war on Christmas. He castigated business owners for requiring their employees to wish their customers a “happy holiday” after taking their money. I believe he actually promised to “make them” order their employees to offer Christmas greetings.

Stupid, yes? Yes! It is!

OK, so now Trump is about to leave office. We have to endure one more Christmas season with The Donald in the White House. Then it will be Joe and Jill Biden taking up residence in our house. They will populate the place with their children and grandchildren, along with a couple of rescue pooches and a cat.

And they will bring plenty of Christmas cheer with them.

What I do not expect President Biden to do will be to make a phony declaration of war against those who have sought a more expansive view of the holiday season than just what Christians around the world celebrate.

I want to make a quick point of personal privilege.

I celebrate Christmas with all its trappings. I celebrate its secular meaning as well as its spiritual significance. I grew up in the Orthodox Church and became a Presbyterian when I got married nearly 50 years ago. However, all that said, I never, ever have taken offense to someone wishing me a “happy holiday.” Indeed, I long have understood that the individual extending that greeting likely doesn’t know a thing about me or my background; he or she doesn’t know if I am a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist or a Wiccan.

So, when I hear politicians throw out the kind of political bull crap that Donald Trump did four years ago while he campaigned for president, I take it all for what it’s worth.

Which is … not a damn thing!

national news

By all means, let’s ‘turn the page’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden’s speech to the nation Monday was full of the expected rhetoric from the man who is about to assume the most exalted office in the land, if not the world.

One of his pronouncements was that it is “time to turn the page” from the past and to “unite” and “heal” a nation torn apart by political division and hatred.

Yeah. Do ya think? 

In reality it has been “time” to do all of that for years. I don’t dismiss the president-elect’s call. I do wonder whether it will resonate now any more than it has in the past as others across the land have urged an end to the bitter divide.

My hope springs eternal that it could mean more coming from the new president who is taking over from the most divisive, angry, ego-maniacal man ever to hold the office. I am going to lay the vast bulk of the blame for the division we are feeling at the feet of Donald J. Trump. No surprise there, I suppose.

Trump has erected a gigantic barrier between the new president and the people he will govern. To what end remains a mystery to me.

So, yes, it is time to “turn the page.” It’s time to turn many pages and slam the book shut on the era we are about to exit.

national news

Another political custom might face a stern test

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A lot of political eyes are set to turn toward someone who’s been stone-cold silent while Donald Trump has ranted about alleged “corruption” in the process that elected Joe Biden as president of the United States.

That someone is Vice President Mike Pence.

The Electoral College has voted to certify President-elect Biden’s election. Now we get to watch Congress ratify it on Jan. 6. There might be a Trumpster in the crowd of House members and senators who will object. The individual who could preside over it all is VP Pence. It’s been customary for the vice president to declare the election of the next president and vice president.

Donald Trump remains adamant that he — not Biden — won the election. What does the VP think? I am left to wonder whether Pence will follow Trump’s reprehensible behavior and refuse to show up.

I will harken back to 2001. We had just completed an election that ended up being decided in the Supreme Court, which voted 5 to 4 to end the counting of ballots in Florida. When the count ended, Texas Gov. George W. Bush led Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes, out of more than 5 million cast. Bush won Florida’s electoral votes, giving him 271 of them to be elected president. Was the then-VP angry? Uh, yeah. He was.

However, he conceded to the new president and when Congress convened to ratify the Electoral College tally, Vice President Gore was present to preside over the event and declared that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would take office as president and vice president, respectively.

That was the statesmanlike behavior we have come to expect in our nation’s top political leadership. We have seen nothing approaching it from Donald Trump. I hope with all sincerity that Mike Pence is a better man than the president.

national news

Way to go, Mitch … hah!

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The temptation surfaced but it was a fleeting moment.

I was tempted to offer a “better late than never” congratulatory statement to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for finally recognizing that his former colleague, Joe Biden, is the president-elect of the United States. McConnell this morning congratulated the president-elect and said he is looking forward to working with him on his agenda.

Then the temptation floated away.

I am left now to heap more shame on the Senate majority leader simply because he did something today he could have done — he should have done — weeks ago.

McConnell knew along with the rest of us that Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the democratic process were damaging to the republic, to the rule of law, to our very governmental foundation. Yet he remained silent … until the Electoral College cast its vote Monday to certify that President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris about to ascend to the pinnacle of power.

So, McConnell hid behind the formality of the vote until it was done and then he came forward this morning to state the obvious.

Sen. McConnell has demonstrated a disgraceful display of cowardice.

But it doesn’t matter what I think. The person whose opinion matters is President-elect Biden. Since he is a better man than many of us I am relatively certain Joe Biden is able to put the hard feelings he might harbor toward his former Senate pal aside and get to work on behalf of the nation he was elected to lead.

legal news

Barr resignation: perfect metaphor

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s resignation today splashed itself all over the news in a perfect metaphor for what the Donald Trump administration has become.

It symbolizes the chaos and confusion many of us saw coming.

Barr’s letter doesn’t mention the word “resignation.” Indeed, it speaks so glowingly about Donald Trump it leaves many of us wondering whether Trump himself actually wrote it. Would it surprise you if it comes out that Trump penned a resignation letter from the AG? Me neither.

Barr will leave office on Dec. 23. So, the Justice Department won’t have a permanent AG for the final month of the Trump administration. Nor will it have a permanent defense secretary, given that Trump fired Mark Esper a few weeks ago.

Think of this: the nation’s top legal eagle and its defense boss are gone in the waning weeks of an administration that burned through countless Cabinet secretaries and chief advisers and aides.

Trump is staggering out of office, giving way to President-elect Biden’s team that is forming daily.

My head is spinning.

local news, Sports news

Oh, and how about them Sod Poodles?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, let’s take a break from Donald Trump’s petty petulance at having lost an election.

I want to offer an atta boy to the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the defending Texas League champs and the minor league baseball team that plays hardball in the city I once called home.

Sod Poodles General Manager Tony Ensor, said this, “We are very pleased to announce that the Amarillo Sod Poodles organization has been formally invited by the Arizona Diamondbacks to become their new Double-A affiliate. Today’s announcement recognizes Amarillo and the Sod Poodles as being among the very best communities and franchises in Minor League Baseball. We are eager to review this affiliation opportunity with the Diamondbacks and our ownership group and look forward to discussing the exciting future ahead for baseball in Amarillo.”

There you go. The Sod Poodles have joined another Major League Baseball team in developing young talent that eventually hopes to end up in the Bigs. The Sod Poodles’ former parent club was the San Diego Padres. They have switched. To be candid, this one got past me. I must’ve been too preoccupied with other matters, such as the aforementioned Donald Trump’s bitching about losing an election to Joe Biden.

I’ll have to be content to cheer for the Sod Poodles  from afar, presuming they have a season this year; it didn’t happen for the Soddies, who wanted to defend their Texas League title won in the team’s first year of existence. We can thank the COVID pandemic for that.

Let’s hope they play ball this year … under the watchful eye of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

national news

Trump elevates our awareness

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let us be clear headed and focused now on what we must do as a nation.

We have elected a new president and vice president of the United States. Today we witnessed in real time as the Electoral College certified the victory earned by President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Normally, this day would have come and gone and no one would have noticed.

Except that this year, thanks to the shenanigans launched by the man Biden defeated — Donald J. Trump — this constitutional duty came into sharp focus. You know what? That’s a good thing! It is good that Americans who take this process for granted now understand with a good bit more clarity how the framers set up this democratic system of ours.

I detest the shenanigans that Trump has sought to pull off. There has been a significant upside, though, if you consider that Americans are paying a good bit more attention to the democratic process.

Let me be clear on this point, too: The Electoral College actually worked damn well, unlike what happened in 2016 when Trump won the electoral vote majority while losing the actual vote to Hillary Clinton. This year, the president-elect’s Electoral College majority and his actual vote majority seem to mirror each other. I won’t call his victory a “landslide,” even though he rang up the same electoral vote total that Trump did four years ago. His victory, though, is significant.

We watched it play out. We paid attention to it. Under normal conditions, we wouldn’t have celebrated this certification the way many of us are doing. There ain’t anything normal about Donald Trump, which he has demonstrated repeatedly since the moment he became a politician.

So you see? Trump’s antics have produced something constructive: an appreciation of our great democratic process!

national news

It’s over, Donald … Donald?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Cue the Fat Lady.

She’s the one who sings when the party — or in this case,  the fight to hold onto power — is over.

The Electoral College today cast more than enough votes to elect Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. As I write this brief post, Hawaii has yet to meet, but that state’s four electoral votes will go to the president-elect.

What now for the current president? He says he’ll keep mounting legal challenges. Well, there ain’t any left.

Oh, then there’s this: Attorney General William Barr, about five minutes after President-elect Biden secured enough votes to be elected by the Electoral College, turned his resignation. He’s quitting effective Dec. 23. I am sure he will have a wonderful, joyous Christmas.

I am going to listen for the faint tunes of the Fat Lady. She’s singing in anticipation of the next president taking office.

Oh, yes … she sounds so sweet to me.

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