national news

Who’s the man of faith?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am sharing two pictures that showed up on my Facebook page today. They depict two presidents of the United States.

You know who they are.

The guy in the first picture is revered by the evangelical Christian movement. They like Donald Trump’s court appointments. They like his so-called “conservative” values he mouths when he hears them touted by right-wing radio and TV talking heads. The evangelicals give him a pass for the flings about which he has boasted, such as with the young woman pictured with him. Hey, no problem, they say. He’s one of us! Good grief!

The other president served a single term from 1977 to 1981. He teaches a Sunday school class at his church in Plains, Ga. Jimmy Carter also builds houses for poor folks as part of Habitat for Humanity.

The evangelical Christian movement sought actively in the 1980 campaign to deny him a second term as president. They preferred another fellow, Ronald Reagan, whose own commitment to matters of faith had been questioned as well, as he rarely darkened the doors of churches.

Jimmy Carter is the real deal. He just turned 96 years of age. He has battled cancer and has been the target of pundits who claim unfairly that he was a “failed president.”

I do not consider myself an “evangelical,” although I do profess my faith openly and joyfully. Still, I am left to wonder about the priorities of those who stand with a lying, conniving philanderer and who scorn a man who practices the faith in which he is committed deeply.

medical news

Trump 24, Biden 0

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot get past a sobering statistic.

Donald Trump’s senior team of policy advisers and campaign operatives is dropping like flies to the COVID-19 virus.

To date, 24 of them have tested positive for the killer bug. They include none other than Donald Trump his own self.

How come? Because Trump doesn’t listen to the advice he gets from the experts with whom he has surrounded himself. He doesn’t like masks; he won’t maintain social distance; his policy gurus follow the Old Man’s lead.

Over on Biden’s side, the infection count among senior Biden policy aides and campaign staffers is, um … zero!

No one has been publicly identified as testing positive for the virus. Hmm. Why is that? Oh, wait! It’s because Joe Biden does follow the advice of medical experts. He wears a mask. He practices social distancing. He forgoes big campaign rallies with thousands of cheering Bidenistas.

Trump 24, Biden 0.

national news

Mr. VPOTUS? Answer this one

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vice-presidential political debates always should be deemed critical to a campaign, given that the principals involved are vying to be next in line to the presidency of the United States.

Tonight’s encounter with Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence has taken on new urgency. I’ll state the obvious reason first: the age of the president and his Democratic Party challenger.

Donald Trump is 74; former VP Joe Biden is 77. I am not being ghoulish in determining that the age of the presidential candidates is a critical part of the VP debate. We need to assess whether either Sen. Harris or VP Pence is ready to become president at a moment’s notice.

We also have this COVID-19 matter. Perhaps you’ve heard, but Donald Trump is infected with a potentially fatal virus. He spent three days in the hospital. He returned to the White House and is continuing to pose an immediate threat to those around him by, um, refusing to wear a mask or observe “social distancing.”

This brings me to an essential question that Harris — or perhaps moderator Susan Page — needs to pose to Pence.

The VP heads the White House coronavirus response task force. Pence needs to answer this question: If you are seeking to stay in office, how is it that you not only have failed to protect Americans — more than 200,000 of whom have died from this disease — but you also failed to protect the president of the United States? 

A host of related questions can arise from that. Why haven’t you insisted at Donald Trump observe medical experts’ warnings? Are you leading by example? Is the task force performing a worthwhile function if POTUS is ignoring your advice? How can you defend the president’s conduct when he jeopardizes the health of those around him?

I believe Pence’s record as head of the response task force needs careful examination in tonight’s encounter.

national news

POTUS affirms decision to ignore him

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have long held to my assertion that Donald Trump’s words aren’t worth heeding.

He has shown just today that my belief holds water, that Donald Trump isn’t to be heeded on anything.

Trump has contradicted medical experts regarding COVID-19. He mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask, then came down with the virus. He went home after just 70 hours at Walter Reed Medical Center and I believe he is spreading the disease as we sit here within the White House.

Then he fired off an astonishing Twitter message that ended White House negotiation with congressional Democrats over a possible coronavirus relief package until after the Nov. 3 election.

There you have it. This man is nuts. Donald Trump cannot be trusted to tell the truth; he cannot speak rationally or reasonably. Trump is out of his mind.

It might be the meds he is taking to combat the COVID-19 virus that has infected him. Trump reportedly is taking steroids, which might have affected his judgment.

Be that as it is, I will continue to ignore anything that flies out of Donald Trump’s pie hole.

State news

Should AG Paxton quit?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Suffice to say that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton doesn’t have quite the same hold on Texas Republicans as, say, Donald J. Trump.

Consider what has happened since seven top Texas AG’s office aides have alleged that Paxton has engaged in activity that abuses the power of his office, including bribery.

The top dogs in the AG’s office have called for a federal investigation into Paxton’s conduct. Gov. Greg Abbott calls the allegations a “serious matter.”

But then U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, an Austin Republican, has called for Paxton to resign his office. Hit the road, Mr. AG, says Roy. Paxton has responded that he isn’t quitting. He calls the allegations phony and vows to fight them for all he’s worth.

I would prefer that Paxton quit. Not because Rep. Chip Roy says so, but because I also believe the allegations are “serious” and they sound credible to me.

It’s not every day that seven top legal minds put their names on a letter alleging behavior that smacks of outright criminality. One of them is the top aide, Jeff Mateer, who quit the attorney general’s office this past week the moment the letter went public.

There’s also the pending trial that Paxton must endure. He is accused of securities fraud. A Collin County grand jury indicted him in 2015, but years of wrangling over where to hold the trial has delayed justice in this case.

I guess the bottom line is that Paxton should quit the AG’s office. How does a state attorney general serve as the state’s top lawyer with an ounce of credibility when he faces the prospect of a federal investigation into whether he took or offered a bribe? 

national news

Trump: No. 1 threat

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump simply couldn’t settle for just being a national security threat by virtue of his behavior regarding the Russians and North Koreans.

Oh, no. He had to become infected with a potentially fatal virus and then flout medical experts’ guidelines and rules about how to conduct himself. He has become a one-man “super spreader” of the disease that is afflicting more than a dozen of his key White House advisers, members of the U.S. Senate, top officers among his military command staff.

Trump returned to the White House on Monday, shucked the mask he was told to wear, stood and offered a stiff salute while gasping for breath, then went into the White House to mingle with staffers and employees. Did he observe “social distancing”? Hah! Not even …

Now he wants to take part in a presidential encounter with the man who appears poised to defeat him Nov. 3, Joe Biden. That will occur on Oct. 15. Maybe!

I am not at all sure it ought to happen, with Biden and Trump standing/sitting on the same stage. Perhaps they could do a “virtual” confrontation, with the adversaries sitting in their own environments. Whatever.

I am simply flabbergasted that Trump continues to offer the happy talk that he “we have done a tremendous job,” that the virus is “under control,” that it will “disappear like a miracle.”

Let me be crystal clear. Donald Trump is not cured of anything. He continues to expose those around him to a potentially fatal disease. He came out of Walter Reed Medical Center prematurely. I do not believe the White House medical staff that expressed “support” for Trump’s decision to leave the hospital; I was struck by the absence of the word “approve” when discussing the decision to exit the medical center.

Trump is a menace. He said he would listen to the medical experts, but hasn’t exhibited any sort of wisdom in heeding his own advice. He is threatening our national security by ignoring the recommendations provided by the medical experts all around him.

He isn’t making America great with his reckless, feckless behavior.

national news

Who’s winning? Who’s losing?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

On a day when Donald Trump decided to quit working with Democrats in Congress over a coronavirus relief package — sending the stock market straight into the dumper — Joe Biden delivered a high-minded speech about unity and our national soul on the site of a revered Civil War battlefield.

One of these fellows is campaigning like a winner; the other is acting like an expected loser.

Hmmm. Who is whom?

It looks to me as though Joe Biden’s decision today to speak to our nation’s better angels without once mentioning Donald Trump’s name is the winner here. Trump? Well, he’s looking more desperate with each passing day.

Does this mean Biden should coast during the campaign’s final 28 days? Hardly. It means only that he took time today to forgo a partisan attack and sought instead to speak to our higher ideals.

As for Trump, he wouldn’t know a higher ideal if it bit him on his ample backside. He has no view of what’s noble or good. He deals in invective and innuendo. He campaigned that way en route to victory in 2016 and has governed that way as president.

Trump decided today that he wouldn’t negotiate with congressional Democrats to find a solution to a coronavirus relief bill; he will talk after the election, he said. To what end is this man refusing to talk to the “other party”?

I cannot or will not predict this presages a Biden victory. Trump, after all, faced grim odds before heading down the stretch four years ago against Hillary Clinton … and then he won!

Oh, but I do hope we are thrashing our way out of the darkness.

local news

Another black life snuffed out

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here we go … again.

A young black man has died at the hands of a police officer. This time the incident is close to home. It’s just one county over from where I live.

This story is at least as troubling as so many others that have caught the nation’s attention.

The victim in this case is Jonathan Price, 31, a Wolfe City resident. The man who shot him to death is Officer Shaun Lucas, a Wolfe City cop who has been charged with murder.

Price was well-known in his community. He reportedly did good deeds for folks in Hunt County. Indeed, at the time of his death he was seeking to break up a domestic disturbance at a convenience store. The officer who arrived then shot Price as the young man was moving away from the cop.

Another death has now caused immeasurable community grief.

The officer who’s been charged with murder has been placed on administrative leave, which means for the moment he will be paid while he cools his jets awaiting his fate. I’ve never quite understood the term “administrative leave,” nor have I understood how individuals continue to draw their pay while ostensibly being punished for an action that could put them in prison for a very long time.

But that’s how it goes.

I am heartened to know the Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation of this terribly sad case. I want their probe to be thorough and as transparent as it can possibly be.

A Northeast Texas community needs answers.

medical news, national news

Quite the scene, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, that was quite the entrance that Donald J. Trump made last night as he strolled off Marine One and walked into the White House.

He had just been discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center where he had been treated for the COVID-19 virus. He walked into “my house,” came back to the flag-draped balcony and then — against the advice of the docs who treated him for the potentially killer virus — removed his mask and walked back into the White House to mingle with employees and assorted presidential supporters.

Words escape me at this moment.

We witnessed an astonishing display of arrogance from the man who then told us to “not let the virus dominate you.” What the f***?

A nation that has said farewell to more than 210,000 of its residents is now advised to avoid letting the virus get us down? The president needs to have his elaborately coiffed skull examined.

He wants to get back on the campaign trail. He wants to tangle with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a race he is losing bigly. 

Trump said he gets it, He said he understands how the coronavirus must be treated. Really? Then someone needs to explain why he went through that disgraceful exhibition on the White House balcony.

I will be candid: He doesn’t get sh** about this virus and the danger it poses to Americans or about the grief it has brought to hundreds of thousands of families and friends of its victims.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to observe all the advice handed out by the medical experts. And is it not lost on anyone that Biden’s team of advisers and policy aides has reported zero cases of COVID-19 infection — to date — while Trump’s team is dropping like flies?

I am astounded beyond measure that the president of the United States would care so little about those around him — not to mention the security of our nation — that he would flout the advice given him to stay safe against a disease that could kill him … along with those around him.

national news

Don’t sweat the COVID virus? Huh?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump is back in the White House after spending about 70 hours at Walter Reed Medical Center.

He is infected with the coronavirus, the one that’s killing Americans every single day.

His response to the virus? Don’t worry about it, he said upon departing the hospital for the residence at the White House. Don’t worry? Is this man nuts? Don’t answer that. I know what you would say … and I would agree.

Donald Trump will never get it. That much is now as clear as it gets.

He doesn’t harbor an ounce of empathy for those who have lost loved ones to the dreaded virus. Trump doesn’t understand what it means to suffer such grievous loss, which is a tough thing to say about a man whose brother died of alcohol abuse. Still, he says things about not worrying about the coronavirus without grasping how those words fall on the ears of those who are mourning the loss of a loved one who has died from it.

I have said before and I’ll say it again that I am hoping that Trump recovers fully from the disease. I want him to stand for re-election on Nov. 3. I also want him to lose bigly. I want Joe Biden to be elected president.

Why? Donald Trump’s behavior while being holed up at Walter Reed and his comments upon leaving it tell me he cannot lead the nation in this dark pandemic era.

What’s more, I haven’t even mentioned until right now how he shucked the mask upon entering the White House.

Donald Trump needs to go.

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