Category Archives: national news

national news

Trump admits defeat … finally?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If any reader of this blog believes I am about to offer a good word to Donald Trump for authorizing the beginning of the transition to a new administration, well … it ain’t gonna happen.

Trump has told the General Services Administration to begin the formal transition to an administration led by President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Sigh …

This should have happened, oh, about two weeks ago when the networks determined that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump and denied Trump a second term as president. It should have begun right then. Right there. At that moment.

Instead, we have been force-fed a series of lawsuits, complaints, tweets and blustering about a “rigged election,” replete with attempts to disenfranchise millions of Americans who cast their ballots freely, fairly and without a hint of corruption.

Now he has ordered the GSA to begin a process that has been delayed for far too long? Give me a break!

Donald Trump has inflicted terrible damage on the image of this country around the world. He has conducted himself with absolute disrespect for the nation’s electoral process. Trump has sown discontent throughout the system and has brought scorn and embarrassment to our government.

Am I now going to offer any praise for him now just because his administration is doing what it should have done weeks ago? Not on your life!

national news

Walls close in on Trump era

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Michigan has certified the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state, granting President-elect Biden 16 electoral votes.

Is that the end of Donald Trump’s foolish, feckless and futile attempt to overturn the results of the election? Not … yet.

Oops. Wait! This just in: The Trump administration has ordered the General Services Administration to begin the transition to the new administration. Finally! More on that later.

It appears that Trump is running out of any sort of legal wiggle room. State and federal judges keep tossing his lawsuits out. A federal judge in Pennsylvania did so with extreme malice; what’s more that judge, a George W. Bush appointee — meaning he is of a Republican ilk — did so with remarkable harsh language. He asserted that Trump has failed to provide evidence of voter fraud, which rendered his complaint not worth the court’s time.

That’s how it is going for Trump as he continues his campaign against the sanctity of our electoral process.

Donald Trump is disgracing himself daily, if not hourly. He  tweets lie upon lie. Trump continues to cling to power as if he would shrivel up and die without it.

Oh, and meanwhile …

President-elect Biden is forming a government. He has selected someone to serve as secretary of state, as secretary of homeland security, as United Nations ambassador, as Treasury secretary, as director of national intelligence, as climate change envoy. What do they have in common? They are experienced hands. They know government. They have worked at the highest levels already. They are ready to serve the public under the Biden administration.

Many of these folks will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

This is how it is supposed to go. Presidents get elected and they begin the search for competent, reliable and dedicated public servants to serve the nation they all love.

And the outgoing president instructs his staff to cooperate with the new team … and then steps aside.

national news

Why Trump should avoid Biden inaugural

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The more thought I give to this subject, the more rational it seems for Donald Trump to stay far away from the Jan. 20 inaugural of President Biden.

It makes sense at many levels.

First, Trump has made it clear he detests losing to Biden. He has refused to concede his election loss. He might never concede.

Second, the Biden inaugural is going to be full of almost all pro-Joe Biden partisans, fans, faithful followers. Were the public address announcer to declare Donald Trump’s arrival at the inaugural podium, my sense is that he would be booed, hooted and jeered off the stage. Does the egomaniacal president really want to hear that?

Third, given all the bad blood that has flowed between Trump and the president-elect, does anyone on Earth really think the new president is going to offer any sort of a political olive branch to his immediate predecessor after he takes the oath? Hah! I damn sure don’t expect it.

Fourth, Trump has embarrassed himself, the nation and the democratic process by this futile, feckless effort to overturn the results of a free and fair election. He is rewriting his presidential legacy every single day.

Yep. It makes plenty of sense to me that Donald Trump simply should avoid any public appearances involving the changing of the presidential guard. It would produce an array of ugly and regrettable scenes.

Donald Trump’s ego seemingly wouldn’t allow it.

Just stay away, Mr. POTUS.

national news

JFK’s final words ring so true

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Kennedy was scheduled to deliver these words 57 years ago this evening.

A gunman changed the course of history in front of the Texas School Book Depository building in downtown Dallas earlier that day.

The words that President Kennedy wanted to speak at the Trade Mart in Dallas that evening have an astonishing ring to them today, given the post-election turmoil the nation is enduring.

I encourage you to read them. Study them. Ponder their significance. Then ask yourself: Is this the best we can do so many decades later?

national news

GOP wising up to the obvious: Biden is the president-elect

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Psst. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got a secret I want to share.

Congressional Republicans are finally — finally! — wising up to what we’ve known since, oh, Nov. 3 … which is that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the race for president.

The GOP caucus is beginning to sound off, albeit a bit mutedly, that Trump needs to back off his reprehensible attempt to overturn the election results.

President-elect Biden has been proceeding as best he can toward forming a government that will take over on Jan. 20. He has gotten zero help from Trump’s team. Still, the Biden team — led by newly named chief of staff Ronald Klain — is lining up Cabinet and senior staff appointees, some of whom the POTUS-elect plans to announce on Tuesday.

Now comes word that some Republican senators and House members are telling their staffs to start working with the president-elect’s team.

Newsweek, for instance, reports: Sen. Kevin Kramer, a North Dakota Republican, said that he has instructed his staff to cooperate with any outreach from President-elect Biden’s transition team while asserting that it was “past time” for President Donald Trump to do the same.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a longtime Trump supporter, said this morning that Trump’s refusal to help Biden’s effort to form a government is “undemocratic” and is a “national embarrassment.” Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican and another senatorial Trumpkin, has said the same thing.  Same for Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee in 2012.

It might be said that it’s a bit “too little and too late” for the GOP to start coming around. I won’t go there. I welcome the Republican pressure. Will it persuade Donald Trump to give up his fight to undermine our democratic process? Will it stem the embarrassment he is bringing to us from around the world? Will it cause Trump to stop endangering the safety and well-being of Americans?

Time will have to reveal all of that. For the time being, I am going to cling to a glimmer of hope that the GOP uprising will pay off.

national news

Hurry up, 2021

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I know for a hard-and-fast fact that I am far from alone in wishing this, but I’ll put it out there anyway.

The year 2020 cannot disappear fast enough!

This has been arguably the most miserable year in many people’s memory. We’ve had the pandemic. It has killed more than 250,000 Americans. It has struck friends of my wife and me. It has caused untold misery to families and to entire communities.

And yes, it has also has befallen our great nation. Our economy has collapsed. Our hospital ERs are filled beyond capacity. Our first responders are despondent as they struggle against an enemy that takes no prisoners.

The 2020 presidential election campaign unfolded ominously. Donald Trump began savaging everyone in sight. Meanwhile, he ignored the pandemic and ultimately paid the political price by losing his bid for re-election. So, there’s justice to be cherished by that result.

Still, the year has been a major-league downer. I want it to end.

Mom used to advise me against wishing my life away. Sorry, Mom, but I cannot help myself. If she were here to suffer through this year she likely would be among those of us who are wishing our life away by wanting the new year to arrive as soon as possible.

The year that’s about to pass into history has been a serious downer.

national news

The impossible is happening

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I didn’t think it was humanly possible, but something strange is happening in real time, right here and now.

Donald John Trump is making me even more anxious than ever for him to leave the White House, hitting the road for Mar-a-Lago, or Bedminster or wherever. Yes, I was anxious for him to leave the moment President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

But my goodness! Trump’s behavior, his betrayal of the oath he took to defend the Constitution, his denigrating of the democratic process has forced me into a realm of anxiousness I didn’t know I possessed.

But I do. I possess it to the extent that I am wishing he simply would vacate my house far sooner than he needs to vacate it. By that I refer to Jan. 20, the date Joe Biden becomes the next president.

Just go, Mr. POTUS. Get the hell out of there! You can keep your presidential powers until the date of the new president’s swearing-in. Just don’t use them foolishly or dangerously.

I wouldn’t object one little bit to Twitter disconnecting Trump’s account. The social medium already has flagged damn near everything that Trump launches into cyberspace as being untruthful. Why not, then, just pull the plug on this clown?

Donald Trump just keeps making matters worse for him. What’s more — and this infinitely more damaging — he is making it worse for the country.

Just go away. Vanish. I want you out of my sight.

national news

Giving thanks for voters’ wisdom

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me a brief moment to mix a bit of politics with the holiday week we’re going to celebrate.

I am giving thanks for the wisdom voters exhibited on Nov. 3 by tossing Donald John Trump out of the White House.

I remained cautiously optimistic that the outcome would turn out as it did, with Joe Biden assuming the title of president-elect. Yes, I had concern that Trump might pull a Houdini-like escape performance by repeating the stunning upset he scored in 2016 to become president.

When the votes came in and were tabulated, my concern was replaced by the satisfaction in realizing that most American voters were able to rectify the mistake that occurred four years ago.

They’re still counting ballots around the country. I look at the running totals almost daily and am heartened by the realization that more than 51 percent of Americans endorsed Joe Biden’s pledge to “restore our nation’s soul.” It needs restoration, to be sure.

I am going to place my faith in the deeds of the new president, that he will be able to bridge the chasm that divides us.

We’re going to give thanks for a lot of things this week. We shall give thanks for living in this great nation, for the liberty granted to us as Americans. We will give thanks for our families and the love that surrounds us and that we give in return.

I also am going to give thanks for the spirit of political redemption that arose on Election Day.

If this post offends you because it mixes partisan politics with the joy of a happy holiday, well … too bad. It’s what I am feeling in my heart this glorious morning.

Have a wonderful day.

national news

Anxious for a new president

2 Comments

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You know by now I have refrained from typing the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name.

Trump is too fundamentally unfit for the office for me to acknowledge that he has earned the title. So I have declined to refer to him directly with the title he acquired upon election four years ago as president of the United States.

Accordingly, I am looking forward to referring to the new president in that fashion. I am going to take a certain measure of delight in typing the words “President Biden” as he assumes the office to which he was elected.

This sounds petty, I am sure, to many of those of you who voted for Trump. You’re entitled to feel that way. As I am entitled to feel the way I do about the outgoing president.

This blog consists mainly discussion about politics and policy. I am keenly aware that many policy decisions come from the politicians who haven’t earned my support at the ballot box. They serve in state and local offices in Texas. However, none of them is as unfit for the offices they occupy as Donald Trump. Therefore, I am not at all reluctant to refer, say, to Gov. Greg Abbott, or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, or U.S. Rep. Van Taylor … or even Vice President Mike Pence.

Donald J. Trump? He occupies a special place of derision for me. I won’t go there. Not ever.

With that I await the inauguration of our next commander in chief, President Joe Biden. 

I just am going to ask him one thing: Do not do something so egregious that I will be forced to reconsider my intent to extend you the courtesy of referring to you by the exalted title you have earned.

national news

Biden does his due diligence

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden’s transition — such as it is to date — to the nation’s highest office is going to include a steady, learned search for individuals who will comprise the executive branch of the federal government.

I think it’s fair to suggest that Biden’s many years of government and public policy experience is going to serve him well as he seeks to fill the top Cabinet and staff positions. It’s also fair to compare his search with what confronted his predecessor as he began his own quest to fill those posts.

Donald Trump didn’t have any of the experience that Biden brings to the presidency. He was steeped in a checkered business career. It showed.

He selected a secretary of state who came from the fossil fuel industry. Rex Tillerson fell out of favor when he referred to Trump as a “fu**ing moron.” Trump has gone through four national security advisers. Three chiefs of staff. Trump installed his daughter as a senior adviser and his son-in-law as chief Middle East negotiator. Many of his campaign advisers and aides have been indicted for criminal activity and served time for it.

To be sure, he did hire some top-flight folks. James Mattis as defense secretary comes to mind. Mattis, though, got canned because he, um, disagreed with Trump’s ignorance about his role as commander in chief.

Trump has failed to fill many posts vacated by resignation or dismissal.

I do not expect any of this to occur in a Biden administration. The new president served eight years as vice president and 36 years as a U.S. senator. He chaired the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. The man knows government. My goodness, he has lived and breathed government for nearly a half-century.

The United States conducted something of an experiment when it elected Donald Trump to its highest political office. The experiment, in my view, failed. Trump didn’t know how to govern. He never thought to learn anything about the complexities of running the nation’s executive government branch.

We have turned now to someone with a wealth of knowledge about that government. He is in the process of looking high low, far and wide for competent individuals who I am going to presume will put the nation’s needs ahead of their own or those of the president.

I am going to maintain my confidence in President-elect Biden’s knowledge and understanding of our complex federal government.

Moreover, I am delighted to say goodbye to the chaos and confusion we have witnessed for the past four years.