Category Archives: national news

national news

Why not probe the riot, GOP?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A Facebook meme showed up today on my news feed that posed an interesting question.

It came in the form of a fake conversation between Wally and Beaver Cleaver. It goes something like this: Gee Wally, if Republicans think that Antifa, Black Lives Matter and assorted communists started the riot on Jan. 6 … why don’t they want to investigate it?

Hmmm. You know the answer to that one. I’ll offer my own view.

It’s because they don’t believe the lie they are telling. The know that BLM, Antifa and other lefty-leaning groups aren’t responsible for the attack on our democratic process. They know in what passes for their hearts that the attack was done at the behest of the moron who lost the 2020 presidential election, but who cannot to this very day declare that he lost fair and square.

We are witnessing the cult of personality at work. It has declared its fealty to a man and thrown aside any pretense of loyalty and adherence to the Constitution of the United States.

Still, little ol’ Beaver has asked his brother Wally a pertinent question. Don’t you think?

national news

POTUS 45 keeps The Big Lie alive

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There he stood before an adoring throng in Ohio.

The disgraced former president of the United States once again told The Big Lie, that he won the 2020 presidential election. He did not win. He lost it bigly.

And yet he trudges on, launching his “revenge campaign” against Republicans who voted to impeach him after he incited the Jan. 6 insurrection that sought to overturn the results of a free, fair and legal election.

As others have said, this individual — who I have declared will not see his name published in this blog — has failed the supreme test of statesmanship. He cannot admit he lost.

Others have lost. Adlai Stevenson, Thomas Dewey, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Walter Mondale, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton all stood before the nation — before their supporters — and stated the obvious, that they lost. They threw their support behind the individual who defeated them.

What is with this political reprobate who the nation had the bad sense to send to the White House for four years?

He has launched his revenge tour. Fine. Let him speak. Thanks be to all that is good, though, that he has no constitutional authority left to do any further tangible harm.

national news

Irony abounds in this political debate

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

As I watch and listen to the contemporary political debate, I am struck by the profound irony I see and hear almost daily.

It slaps me in the puss, punches me in the gut, gnaws at my innards.

Here’s what I mean.

I listen to those on the far right fringes of our nation’s political spectrum proclaim their “patriotism,” their “love of country” and their devotion to the Constitution. Then I see the occasional image of these “patriots” standing under a Confederate flag. Or they lambaste the movement known as “Antifa,” which — as you might know — is a sort of short-hand for “anti-fascist.”

The irony? Well, the first ironic notion is obvious, given that the Confederacy stands as the nation’s most profound enemy of the state. The Confederate States of American seceded from the Union and went to war to protect the institution of slavery within those states.

In recent times, of course, many of us has awakened to what the Confederacy really represented: treason against the United States of America. Statues of Confederate soldiers have come down. Americans have rioted to protest their removal. A president of the United States tried to make excuses for their riotous behavior by referring to “fine people … on both sides” of a riot that included Klansmen and Nazis.

That dovetails into the second profound irony of this real-time debate. Antifa has become a four-letter word. It is used in some circles as an epithet meant to demonize those who speak out against police brutality or seek justice for those who have been mistreated by rogue cops.

The root of the term Antifa, though, is what brings this irony into sharp focus for me. Let us never forget that The Greatest Generation of Americans went to war against fascism. The German Nazis who, along with their Italian partners, sought to subjugate Europe under the heavy hand of fascism. They were joined by their tyrants in Japan, who dragged this country into the world’s bloodiest war. My own father was one of those young Americans who left the comforts of their home and went to war against the fascists.

Yes, Dad was an Antifa member.

I simply cannot let this irony go without offering this comment on its hideous nature in this current political debate.

It sickens me.

national news

Heroes emerge in the rubble

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We’ve all been shocked and horrified at the images of the collapsed condominium tower in Surfside, Fla.

I want to take a moment to honor the heroes who have emerged  from the rubble as firefighters, police, military personnel and civilians search for survivors.

We keep hearing stories of men and women hearing voices from deep inside the wreckage of the building.

To be sure, with 159 people unaccounted for, I dread the prospect that awaits the loved ones waiting and hoping for miracles to present themselves.

President Biden has pledged the federal government’s full support. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is delivering all he can as well to assist the stricken community. There apparently are many questions to answer, such as those dealing with known structural deficiencies in the condo. So help me I have never heard of an U.S.-built structure such as this one just collapse under its own weight.

However, the heroes have emerged and will continue to emerge as the search goes on for those who trapped under the mountain of rubble. I am going to offer a prayer, as well, for the suffering community.

national news

POTUS makes another run at gun violence

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden well might beat himself senseless with this initiative but he deserves credit for bringing needed attention to a national scourge.

That would be gun violence.

Biden says clearly that “it has to end.” To be sure, the president is getting push back from — get ready for it — the Republican caucus in Congress. GOP lawmakers blame the progressive movement and its “defund the police” mantra for the spike in gun violence. I guess that means Republicans won’t do anything about it. They’ll continue to sit on their hands, continue to obstruct any effort to legislate a remedy to what has become an all-too-common event: mass shootings.

USA Today reports: “Folks, this shouldn’t be a red or blue issue,” Biden said in the White House State Room. “It’s an American issue. We’re not changing the Constitution. We’re enforcing it, being reasonable. We’re taking on the bad actors doing bad and dangerous things in our communities.”

In a speech from the White House, Biden announced a “zero-tolerance policy” for rogue gun dealers and a new focus by the Justice Department to try to stop the illegal sale of firearms.

Biden also emphasized that cities and states can use their portions of $350 billion in direct aid from Biden’s COVID-19 rescue plan, approved by Congress in March, on public safety efforts, including hiring more police officers.

So, the resistance will come from those in Congress who believe liberals are to blame, which gives them a pretext to oppose legislation that seeks to target bad actors out there who contribute to the carnage.

‘It has to end’: Biden targets illegal gun sales, rogue dealers in strategy to combat rising crime (msn.com)

It’s hard to say how much of an impact President Biden’s initiative will have on the plague of gun violence. But my goodness. Why in the world must this resistance continue to obstruct good-faith efforts to deal forthrightly with what every sensible American must believe is occurring on our streets?

I have no intention of giving up this fight and I will continue to stand with those in power who see gun violence against innocent Americans as the existential threat it has been for far too long.

national news

Why not make the case … and debate?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Congressional Republicans managed to win the latest battle in their fight to prevent any federal reform of voting practices. They held together to prevent debate on a legislative package proposed by their Democratic colleagues.

This begs the obvious question: If they believe in their argument against overhauling the federal vote system, why do they insist on denying any reasonable, thorough and comprehensive debate on it on the floor of the U.S. Senate?

I have a theory. It goes like this: They aren’t interested in the issues attached to Democrats’ proposal; they merely want to suppress the vote by making it more difficult for Democratic-leaning voters to cast their ballots.

That’s my way of suggesting that if they are forced to argue the merits of their case, they would lose the war.

Public opinion aligns with the Democrats’ view of voter reform. The public opposes Republican efforts to suppress voters’ access to elections.

Democrats today lost the latest skirmish in this overall war. They did manage to hold their own 50-member caucus together. The problem was it wasn’t enough to break through the 60-vote barrier that would have been required to commence debate on this issue.

I will stay tuned, though, for this struggle to continue. My hope is that we can get past the obstructionism being orchestrated by the once-Grand Old Party.

national news

Compromise fuels good government

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The older I get the more I believe in compromise and the less weight I place on the value of long-standing ideology.

Which is my way of suggesting that the haggling that’s occurring over (a) voting rights legislation and (b) infrastructure legislation is a sign of good government trying to find its way into law.

Congress is wrestling with itself over both of those notions. Republicans seem wedded to the “just say ‘no'” theory of government. Anything that comes from the Democratic president, Joseph R. Biden, is deemed DOA the moment it leaves his mouth.

Biden has long prided himself on being able to work with the GOP. He did so with great effect while serving for 36 years as a U.S. senator and then as eight years as vice president. Now, though, he is deemed the enemy of the GOP, even among his once-good friends … such as Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Oh well.

He threw a $2.25 trillion infrastructure package at the GOP. He apparently is willing to settle for a lot less than that. Still, most of the Rs ain’t budging. At least not yet.

As for voting rights, the GOP now has taken up the “states’ rights” mantra, contending that the feds shouldn’t interfere with states’ ability to write their own voting rules. Except that the Republican-led states, such as Texas, are seeking to disenfranchise millions of Americans who, as luck would have it, happen to vote mostly Democrat when they get the chance.

The GOP’s other mantra? Voter security, as if there was a huge breach in that security in the 2020 presidential election. Spoiler alert: There wasn’t any such breach!

But the two sides are slogging through an effort to find some level of compromise.

I am a good-government progressive. I am not wedded so much these days to ideology as I am to seeing government work. I want my federal government to work, to serve me and my family; we are paying the freight, along with you.

Stay busy, ladies and gentlemen who serve in government. We demand you find a way to compromise. Or else!

national news

This conspiracy theory is truly dangerous

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This thought didn’t originate with me, but I want to share it here.

It goes like this: We suffer through plenty of conspiracy theories: faked moon landing; 9/11 was an “inside job”; Elvis is alive.

None of those “theories,” though, rise to the level of danger to the democracy than the one being perpetuated by those who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from the disgraced ex-POTUS who lost to President Biden.

Indeed, POTUS 45’s insistence himself that he is the victim of electoral theft is what gives this conspiracy nuttiness its dangerous quality. That a former commander in chief would suggest such a thing, given the security attached to the 2020 election, is beyond reprehensible.

He talks of electoral theft. He speaks of a “rigged election.” He tells us that he’ll be “reinstated” as POTUS by the end of the summer. How in the world does this lunatic look at himself in the mirror? How does he continue to live the lie he is preaching?

My absolute worst fear isn’t that he is right. He isn’t. Nor are the loons who follow his rants. My worst fear is that the conspiracy theories/nuttiness is going to live on and on … much like the other loony notions have lived on.

We’d best steel ourselves for a lifetime of insanity.

national news

Shut the hell up, Rep. Jordan

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jim Jordan is among many congressional Republicans who just piss me off. Pure and simple. The guy is a loon who needs to have a sock shoved into his pie hole.

He has managed yet again to make an ass of himself by suggesting that the rising auto fuel prices are the result of President Biden’s economic policies.

Good grief, dude! Get a fu**ing grip.

“Average gas price: June 2020: $2.21 June 2021: $3.07,” Jordan tweeted today. “President Biden’s economy!”

Then came the response from the White House press flack, Jen Psaki. “You forgot to mention that gas prices are the same now as they were in June 2018. Or that this time last year unemployment was 11.1% — today it’s 5.8%,” she said. “@POTUS agrees families shouldn’t pay more at the pump – that’s why he’s opposed to GOP proposals to raise the gas tax.”

The idiot Jordan refuses to acknowledge that supply and demand — simple economic policy — is creating this spike in fuel prices. Demand has returned as the COVID pandemic has receded. Supply of fuel remains limited because energy companies have yet to ramp up their production capacities to meet the pent-up demand.

So with that I simply want to offer a simple demand of the Ohio loudmouth/blowhard/gasbag member of Congress. Just shut the hell up.

national news

This is ‘good government’?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Manchin is tying himself up in knots.

The West Virginia Democratic member of the U.S. Senate has become the Man of the Hour as his fellow Democrats wrestle with how to keep alive a comprehensive voter law.

Manchin is thought to be the most conservative member of the Senate Democratic caucus. Democrats need him to vote “yes” Tuesday on a procedural vote that keeps alive the For the People Act. The bill has zero Republican support. It needs all 50 Senate Democrats to sign on to send a message to the GOP caucus that Democrats also stand united in favor of a bill that seeks to protect against states’ efforts to roll back voter access to millions of Americans.

Former President Obama has signed on to a compromise offered by Manchin, which to my way of defining the term is the essence of “good government.” Manchin appears to be enjoying his role of go-to guy on this landmark legislation. He has said what he would support and what he would oppose.

A deadlocked Senate won’t break a GOP filibuster, but it does send a message that this notion isn’t going to wither and die just because Democrats can’t end a Republican filibuster.

So it falls on Sen. Manchin to vote “yes” on something that isn’t perfect in his mind. Then again, legislation that becomes law usually contains some elements that displease someone within the legislative branch of government.

I’m not exactly holding my breath on this one. I just want to wait along with the rest of the nation to see whether Joe Manchin keeps this key legislation alive.