Category Archives: national news

national news

No ‘designated survivor’?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden is going to stand before a sparse gathering of officials Wednesday night for his first speech to a joint congressional session.

Here, though, is a strange wrinkle: There will be no “designated survivor” among the Cabinet members who can step into the office in the event of a catastrophe.

The COVID pandemic is going to limit the audience to 200 people. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be present, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate President pro-tem Patrick Leahy. Harris, Pelosi, Leahy and Blinken all, in that order, would succeed to the presidency if something happened to those ahead of them in the line of succession.

So, were something to happen, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would be the next to step into the office.

No designated survivor for Biden’s first joint address to Congress (msn.com)

Nothing is going to happen. Let’s stipulate that much.

It does kind of give me the creeps nonetheless to comprehend how much this pandemic has upset everything.

national news

GOP testing POTUS’s patience

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(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Every human being who’s ever lived has limits to his or her patience.

My strong sense is that the today’s Republican Party leadership is testing the wellspring of patience that rests within President Biden.

If only the GOP honchos would wean themselves of the Big Lie being fed to them by Donald J. Trump and his minions about the 2020 election. If only the Republican hierarchy would divest its interest in seeking to overturn a free and fair election. If only they would act as American patriots instead of lunatic wackos.

Trump sits on the sidelines these days. He isn’t silent. He keeps yammering about the phony vote fraud that has prompted the “audit” of Arizona’s election returns. He continues to suggest the election was stolen. He never provides a scintilla of proof for any of the outrageous lies he keeps repeating.

Yet the GOP congressional leadership keeps gobbling it up. It presents itself as being responsible stewards of our federal government. They aren’t. They are responsible only to the former Imbecile in Chief. Damn few of them can say a single critical word about the Big Lie.

Meanwhile, we have a president who wants to enact some big programs. We are fighting a pandemic. We are trying to recover economically from the havoc it has brought. President Biden cannot get the GOP to sign on to what should be a bipartisan effort. Why is that? Because too many of the loyal opposition’s leadership is too wedded to the Big Lie.

The president’s patience surely has its limits.

national news

Politicization: astounding and moronic

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Never did I think back when I was bringing two boys through childhood and into their teen years that we would engage in an astonishing — and frankly moronic — debate over vaccination against an infectious killer.

When our sons required vaccines, they received them. No questions asked. No concerns over the damn politics of the moment.

They were inoculated against polio, smallpox, flu, measles, chicken pox, mumps … you name it.  So was I. So was their mother.

Here we are now. The COVID-19 virus has killed nearly 600,000 Americans and 2 million or so around the world and yet Americans are arguing among themselves over whether to receive one of three certified vaccines that have been deemed overwhelmingly effective against the disease.

And why is that? Why are we debating it? Because some of us still cling to the idiocy that the pandemic isn’t real, that it’s a hoax, that it is the product of some conspiracy cabal intent on doing something, anything to bring mysterious harm to us.

OK, I know … we’ve got that J&J vaccine that’s been reapproved for use after that overblown scare involving six women who contracted serious blood clots after taking that vaccine. Six out of — how many? — 2 million doses. That sent red flags up everywhere.

Meanwhile, President Biden’s medical team is trying to tell us that the vaccines — all of them — are safe for human use.

Most of us are listening. Others are not. There have been arguments at family dinner tables over the vaccines and over whether we should be vaccinated.

It makes me want to pull out my hair!

national news

POTUS to speak to sparse ‘crowd’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden campaigned for the presidency in the midst of a pandemic, meaning that he avoided staging big campaign rallies.

As president, he is getting set to speak to a joint session of Congress this week. Hmm. Guess what … the House of Representatives chamber will contain a fraction of the number of people who usually listen to these speeches.

The Cabinet won’t be there. Only the Supreme Court chief justice, John Roberts, will be present, with the rest of the court staying away. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley will represent the military brass. Members of the House and Senate will be there. First lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will be in the VIP section, but they will be virtually unaccompanied.

But … the event will show off a bit of history-making. Sitting behind President Biden will be two women: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris.

I understand they’ll be masked up, as will the audience in the chamber.

An earlier blog post wondered how the partisans will react. Will they cheer the president’s arrival? Will they stand and applaud when Speaker Pelosi introduces him?

I am not going to obsess over things we cannot control. I am, however, going to applaud the precautions that the powers that be are taking to avoid creating one of those “super spreader” events.

After all, the pandemic is still raging.

national news

Time and money wasted

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You need to pay careful attention to what I intend to say here, which is that an invaluable amount of time and money is being spent in Arizona to determine whether a free and fair election was conducted, well … freely and fairly.

Spoiler alert: It was conducted fairly and was relatively corruption-free.

That, however, is not dissuading Arizona Republican Party officials from conducting an “audit” of more than 2 million ballots cast in the state’s largest county, Maricopa, which — I hasten to add — voted for Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president in 2020.

Now, to be fair, the Biden margin of victory over Donald J. Trump wasn’t huge. It was only a little more than 45,000 votes out of the total cast in the sprawling county. Will the election audit produce the kind of swing that GOP loons want to occur? Hah! I wouldn’t bet your sturdiest pair of jeans on that happening.

And what do you suppose it would do to the overall Electoral College outcome if by some miracle that hell freezes over and they overturn the election result in Arizona? Not a damn thing. Joe Biden still would be elected president and Donald Trump still would be banished to his posh south Florida resort.

The Arizona Republic reported:

Former President Donald Trump on Friday praised GOP senators in Arizona for their “tireless efforts” to recount millions of Maricopa County ballots, predicting the massive review would produce startling findings.

Despite prior audits — and a host of election lawsuits — failing to turn up evidence of Joe Biden “stealing” the presidency, Trump thanked the lawmakers for “the incredible job they are doing in exposing the large scale voter fraud” in the 2020 election.

Startling findings? Hah! There he goes again, fomenting the Big Lie about phony vote fraud.

Arizona election audit updates: Pause in recount appears off as Democrats won’t post bond (msn.com)

I am going to say this for as long as I can string a cogent thought or two together: There was no rampant vote fraud in the 2020 election.

Think for just a moment about this fact: If you are an election official anywhere in the United States and you know about the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, you are going to work double- and triple-overtime to ensure that the process is squeaky clean.

Does anyone with a half a noodle in their skull believe there was anything approaching the hanky-panky that Trump and his cabal of goons suggest occurred?

Donald Trump talked about the media being the “enemy of the people.” He has it all wrong. The 45th president of the United States is the enemy we all should fear.

national news

POTUS calls it a ‘crisis’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden calls the immigrant situation on our nation’s southern border a “crisis.”

Which it is. It has been one for several weeks. The Biden administration has been reluctant to call it such.

But … it is a crisis. Too many children have migrated to our border unaccompanied by their parents. They are filling up temporary shelters all along the border.

Look, I am not going to beat the hell out of President Biden because of his prior reluctance to label this matter a “crisis.” He’s done so. That’s good enough for me.

Now he needs to get busy with finding a solution.

If nothing else the president might be able to get his right-wing critics to muzzle their bloviating about it and start offering some suggestions for how to fix the problem.

national news

Did he say that? Really?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Complete candor requires us to realize that we didn’t think a U.S. senator was a certifiable nut job when he took office.

Still, Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has provided ample evidence that he might need to be committed.

Johnson has been a COVID denier since the pandemic broke out. Now he says that there is “no reason” for Americans to get vaccinated if their neighbors have the vaccine. He is actually seeking to dissuade us from getting vaccinated against a virus has has killed just a bit south of 600,000 Americans.

Yes, the death rate is declining. The infection rate in many states, though, is spiking. Vaccines are rolling out. Three drug companies have produced enough vaccine to inoculate tens of millions of Americans.

Ron Johnson wonders, “Why the push for vaccine?”

Republican Ron Johnson tries to explain why there is “no reason to be pushing vaccines on people” (msn.com)

I think I can explain. We want the vaccine injected into as many Americans as possible so we can protect ourselves –and them — from the virus. Holy cow, man! It ain’t complicated!

As the Business Insider reports: Last month, the congressman claimed that he doesn’t plan on getting vaccinated because he already contracted the disease, which he argued “probably provides me the best immunity possible.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, with regards to natural immunity, “experts don’t know for sure how long this protection lasts, and the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 far outweighs any benefits of natural immunity. COVID-19 vaccination will help protect you by creating an antibody (immune system) response without having to experience sickness.”

This is the same guy who said the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill took place even though most of the rioters are law-abiding citizens who have a deep respect for law enforcement. Uh, senator? I saw the video of that riot. There wasn’t a lot of abiding by the law taking place. He also believes the Big Lie about phony voter fraud.

Now he is popping off about vaccines.

Hmm. Shut up, Sen. Johnson.

national news

Waiting on a probe

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The nation endured an insurrection on Jan. 6.

The Department of Justice has charged more than 400 people involved in the riot that sought to overturn the results from the 2020 presidential election. DOJ expects the count to reach 500.

The riot resulted in the second impeachment of a president, the death of a police officer and four others, injuries to hundreds of individuals.

It was a concerted, planned attack on our federal government.

The question: Why hasn’t there been a non-partisan, blue-ribbon commission named to root out the cause of the riot and to make recommendations on how we can possibly avoid future attacks on our democracy?

Congress is dawdling. The Justice Department needs to get more involved as well. Attorney General Merrick Garland knows how this process should work, as he has experience gained from his own probe of the 1995 domestic terrorist bombing of the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City.

You may count me as one American patriot who demands answers to what we witnessed that day as crowds stormed into the Capitol Building, yelling for VP Mike Pence and threatening to hang him; they defecated on the floor of our government; they were looking for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Do not tell me that the word “insurrection” is incorrect or too, um, strident a term to describe what happened. That is precisely what we witnessed.

We need there to be a commission patterned after the panel formed in the wake of 9/11 to give us answers.

national news

Sen. Kennedy gets an earful

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, might have thought he could get away with hurling a rhetorical fastball at a noted voting rights activist.

He asked Stacey Abrams of Georgia to explain to him what in that state’s new voting restriction law is “racist.” Abrams, a Democratic activist who happens to be African-American, fired back.

DAMN! GOP Sen. John Kennedy Tries To Grill Stacey Abrams On Georgia voting law And Gets Served – YouTube

Abrams launched into a point-by-point recital of all the provisions in the Georgia law she deems to be discriminatory.

Kennedy sought a couple of times to shut her down. Abrams persisted. She continued. Abrams ended up giving Kennedy far more than he thought he would get when he posed the question.

I attached a link to this brief blog post that explains what I am talking about. It’s worth taking a look.

national news

Mondale blazed a VP trail

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The modern U.S. vice presidency has as its godfather a man known as Fritz. That would be Walter Mondale, who today died at the age of 93.

Say what you might about the likes of Democrats Al Gore and Joe Biden who came along after Mondale’s single VP term during the Jimmy Carter administration. Then we have Republican Dick Cheney.

All those men left their imprint on the vice presidency, too. They became key policy advisers to the presidents they served. Thus, the well-known phrase that former VP John Nance Garner attached to the office he occupied during Franklin Roosevelt’s first two terms as president, which he said wasn’t worth “a bucket of warm pi**,” no longer was relevant to the office.

Then came Mondale’s historic choice of a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, to run as vice president along with him as the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 1984. They lost in a historic landslide to President Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Ferraro was the first woman to run on a national ticket. Republican Sarah Palin would run as VP in 2008 with Sen. John McCain and, of course, Kamala Harris would be elected vice president in 2020.

There you have it. Walter Mondale made history by rewriting the vice presidency and then made it again by starting to clear away the obstacles that kept women off the national ticket.

Fritz Mondale was a great man and a dedicated public servant. May he rest in eternal peace.