Category Archives: national news

national news

GOP at war with itself

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_9@hotmail.com

The Republican Party is at war with itself.

Its elected leadership cannot gather up the courage to stand against a president who ostensibly represents the party, but who says things about despots and tyrants that are anathema to traditional GOP values.

The “other” wing of the party comprising former elected officials and assorted public figures has formed various political action committees and organizations whose mission is to defeat Trump in this year’s presidential election.

Which side should win this fight? I am pulling for the latter wing of the GOP to come out on top.

You have former Republican campaign operatives and assorted pundits and ex-pols joining something called the Lincoln Project, which by its name tells you that they represent the party of the 16th president of the United States, the great Abraham Lincoln.

The cadre/cabal of elected GOP officials has disgraced itself — yes, with a few notable exceptions — by cowering before Donald Trump.

Trump has remained silent about reports of Russian goons paying bounties for the lives of American servicemen and women killed by the Taliban. He has reportedly called service personnel “suckers” and “losers” because they choose to don the military uniform. Trump has denigrated the service of war heroes, such as the late Sen. John McCain. Now we hear from Trump himself that he “downplayed” the coronavirus threat even after telling iconic reporter Bob Woodward that he knew all along it would kill a lot of Americans.

The silence among those in public office is deafening and shameful. Yet they persist in their tacit defense of Trump merely by declining to condemn him in the strongest terms possible.

On the other side are those with no political axe to grind, or no political constituencies to please. They stand up to a man who prior to running for president had zero public service experience and only a passing acquaintance with classic Republican orthodoxy.

How this internecine warfare plays out will depend in large part on the presidential election outcome. My hope is that the good guys — the true Republicans who cannot stomach another four years of Trump — win this fight.

national news

Trump likes those authoritarians?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well, that Bob Woodward is revealing a lot about Donald Trump, much of it we knew, but much of it also is so shocking to hear coming directly from Trump himself.

Such as his admission to Woodward that he prefers dealing with authoritarian leaders. Of course, I use the word “authoritarian” with some caution. The term doesn’t come close to describing the heavy hand used in places such as North Korea, Russia, Turkey and the Philippines, all of which are governed by despots/tyrants/killers.

They also seem to curry favor with Trump, who in the past has praised them for their, um, “strong leadership” and other goofy terms of endearment.

Woodward is making the news/talk show circuit these days, talking up his new book “Rage,” which has revealed how Trump lied to Americans about what he learned in the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. He downplayed the impact of the virus to us publicly, but stated to Woodward as early as February that we were facing a killer virus.

This authoritarian preference, though, seems to suggest a sort of projection of Trump onto the style employed by these other world leaders. It’s as if he wants to be just like them.

Except for this little restraint: The U.S. Constitution limits presidential power, meaning that Donald Trump cannot exert the kind of authority he seemingly would like to exert.

If only Trump would read the nation’s governing framework.

national news

Trump tries rhetorical magic tricks

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Wow! I couldn’t believe my ears.

A young woman asked Donald Trump at an ABC News town hall meeting why he lied about the seriousness of the pandemic that was bearing down on the nation.

Trump’s answer was astonishing. He said he didn’t “downplay” it, but “up-played” the seriousness of it by acting immediately to shut down travel from China, where the virus supposedly originated. His quick action at the front end of the pandemic saved “millions of lives,” he told her.

Well … what do you know about that?

We happen to have his own voice recorded. It’s on the record forever and ever telling legendary reporter Bob Woodward that he did “downplay” the pandemic. “I still prefer” to downplay it, he told Woodward. Why? He said he didn’t want to “cause a panic” among Americans.

Holy crap, Mr. President!

What in the name of rhetorical flim-flammery is this guy trying to pull on us?

He lied to us. He stood there and told Woodward that the virus was a “killer” that would be worse than the most “strenuous flus,” and then told the public two weeks after revealing that information that the disease was “under control” and that it would be just like the flu.

That’s what I call “downplaying” the severity of a killer virus.

And so … Donald Trump lied once more to a young voter in front of millions of Americans.

Mr. President, we aren’t the rubes you seem to think we are.

national news

Trump endangers his fervent base

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Don’t you just know that Donald Trump doesn’t give a rip about the health and well-being of those who continue to fawn over his idiotic rants?

He is conducting indoor campaign rallies. The fans he attracts are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, most of them without masks. They’re cheering his pronouncements, booing his references to the “fake news” media.

He is denigrating Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s care and caution against exposing his own fans to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump is not to be derailed. He will continue to stage those rallies. They will be indoors. They’ll be full of the Trumpkin Corps faithful.

They also well might cause a serious spike in infection and, God forbid, death among those who ignore social distancing and masks.

Does any of this matter to Donald Trump? Hell no!

Is any of this a reason to perhaps rethink whether you want to support this guy’s bid for re-election to a second term as president? He says he cares about you.

The truth is he doesn’t.

national news

This election matters … seriously!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

During my many years in print journalism, I sought to remind voters in communities in Texas and in Oregon — where I worked — that local elections mattered more than national elections. Why? Because the local folks set tax policy that paid for essential services we need and use: police and fire, water, garbage pickup, street upkeep.

That was then. The presidential election that awaits 49 days from now might supplant local elections as the most relevant to our needs.

It’s Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump. Biden wants to replace Trump and restore a sense of national honor, of empathy, of concern for our safety. Biden wants to lead the nation through the pandemic that is still killing too many of us daily. Trump is continuing to lie about what he’s allegedly done. Biden wants to protect Americans against all threats, even those that arrive in the form of a killer virus.

We are being forsaken by a president who doesn’t give a rat’s a** about us. His concern is focused solely on his re-election. One might be able to link the two matters — re-election and a president’s concern for U.S. citizens. Except that Trump’s continual lying about the coronavirus renders his actual caring about us absolutely moot.

It is true that presidents don’t set tax policy. City councils still establish how much we pay for essential municipal services. So do our county commissioners courts. None of this is meant to diminish their relevance in our daily lives.

I do intend to take particular note of the stakes of the national election and to suggest that this Biden-Trump choice means more to us individually than most of the presidential choices we have made … arguably since the beginning of this glorious republic.

Both candidates call this the most consequential election in history. I believe them and I intend to do all I can to ensure we make a change at the top of our political chain of command.

national news

Michael Cohen: hero or zero?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am trying to figure out my feelings toward Michael Cohen, the former Donald Trump lawyer/friend/fixer who has turned ferociously against the man to whom he once pledged blind loyalty.

Cohen has written a book titled “Disloyal.” He has been making the talk show circuit from his home, given that he remains under house arrest for crimes he committed on Donald Trump’s behalf.

Cohen is a convicted perjurer, which is a legal word that means “liar.”

Now, though, he is trying to make amends for lying on Trump’s behalf. Cohen has talked about the treachery he performed for Trump, how he got sucked into Trump’s cult of personality. About how he fell for Trump’s sales pitch.

This mixed feeling I have toward Cohen is driving me a bit batty. My first instinct would be to salute Cohen for acknowledging the wrong turn he took years ago. However, the damage he did while working for Trump wipes away a good bit of that instinct to cheer Michael Cohen.

I don’t know if I will purchase “Disloyal.” I know a lot already about the man for whom he worked. He won’t tell me much of anything I don’t already believe about him. He says Trump’s hatred of Barack Obama is based exclusively on President Obama’s race … to which I say, “no sh**?”

Maybe, over time, my feelings about Cohen will crystallize. I cannot get there just yet. He means to make amends. I’ll at least give him credit for making the effort. For now, that’s the best I can deliver to this convicted liar.

national news

Trump undermines our electoral system

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

When have you ever heard of a president contend that an election will be “rigged” in any context? When has a president been so callous, careless and contemptuous of our electoral system to suggest that it would be corrupted enough to produce a result that he doesn’t prefer?

I am astonished beyond measure at the rhetoric that is coming from Donald John Trump as he seeks to undermine the very electoral system he took an oath to protect.

Trump has been beating the “Democrats will rig the election” drum. He stands before rally crowds and declares that the Democratic Party is seeking to “rig” the 2020 election by sending out “millions of ballots” to people who aren’t entitled to receive them.

For starters, there is not a single shred of truth to Trump’s specious assertion. Beyond that particular lie — which is precisely what it is — there is the very idea that Trump would seek to undermine the electoral system.

Just ponder that for a moment.

Trump’s presidential oath included a pledge to protect the system of government he was elected to run. What in the name of constitutional integrity is Donald Trump seeking to do here? I think I know. He seeks to torpedo the very electoral system by sowing seeds of doubt over its integrity.

His target du jour is mail-in voting. Several states have been conducting all-mail voting for years. Trump says the system invites widespread voter fraud. No! It does nothing of the sort!

My home state of Oregon was the first state to enact a vote by mail system. It did so in 1998. A study by the Heritage Foundation, a noted conservative think tank, has revealed some fascinating data.

During the time Oregon has allowed voting by mail, Heritage uncovered 15 cases of outright voter fraud. How many ballots were cast during the time period examined? Nearly 15.5 million of them!

Fifteen cases of fraud against 15.5 million total ballots. Does that look to you like a case of “rampant voter fraud?”

And yet … Donald Trump keeps hammering at the voter fraud red herring as if it’s the real thing. It is a figment of Trump’s political strategists. It poses a serious danger to our very system of free of fair elections.

To think that this is all coming from the president of the United States. Despicable.

national news

Biden needs to avoid this tag

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joseph R. Biden Jr. needs to do all he can to avoid being labeled by historians as the candidate who lost a presidential campaign to an incompetent, immoral, corrupt politician.

Donald Trump is the aforementioned individual Biden is facing in the upcoming presidential election. Will the incumbent slither his way to a second term as president? I have no possible idea.

I am hoping for all I can that Biden defeats Trump bigly.

However, Trump’s uncanny knack of wiggling free of political crises gives me the heebie-jeebies. While it is weird enough that Trump managed to defeat a demonstrably more qualified candidate for president in 2016, it would be far beyond bizarre for Trump — with the hideous record he has compiled in his current term as president — to pull it off again this year.

You have to get busy, Mr. Biden. Millions of us are counting on you.

national news

‘We’ll negotiate’ … what?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There he was, standing before a crowd of worshipers ranting in a riff about a “rigged” election and making what I consider to be a rather startling declaration if — heaven forbid — he actually wins re-election.

Donald Trump said “We’ll negotiate” a way to stay in office past a second presidential term.

I damn near shook the glasses off my face at that one.

Trump keeps yapping about how badly he was treated during much of his current term in office. About the Robert Mueller investigation into alleged “collusion” with Russians seeking to interfere in our election. About the House of Representatives impeaching of Trump over abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. About the ongoing findings by intelligence officials that Mueller was right, that the Russians did interfere.

So what does Trump propose to do at the end of a — gulp! — second term? He wants to see how he circumvent the U.S. Constitution to finagle a third term in office.

The Trumpkins arrayed before him at the Nevada political rally cheered Trump’s ridiculous call to “negotiate.” They likely don’t believe that what he said is practically impossible. That he is likely just saying such a thing to rile up the “base.” That it’s just campaign-trail grist.

The 22nd Amendment that limits presidents to two elected terms is rock solid. It won’t be tinkered with by a goofball who thinks he is above the law, which I should add got him in trouble with the House that impeached him.

I just have to circle back to the most fundamental question of the moment: How can we allow a president who makes these kinds of ridiculous assertions to stay anywhere near the White House?

Get him outta there!

national news

Trump defames elections officials

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s incessant and profoundly absurd claim of a “rigged election” in the event of a loss to Joseph Biden rubs me raw at so many levels.

I keep wondering how county elections officials, regardless of their political affiliation, must feel when they hear Trump make those terrible and defamatory assertions about the fairness of the election in case he comes up short.

If you’re a county clerk and you run an election office you must wonder just how Trump believes you can “rig” an election to push Biden across the finish line ahead of the incumbent president.

I have known a number of county clerks in Texas and in Oregon, where I worked in journalism for all those years, and to a person — man or woman, Republican or Democrat — they are dedicated to their profession. They all take an oath to defend the same Constitution that the president swears to defend. They all swear to follow the law and to ensure that everything they do is above board.

However, we keep hearing from Donald Trump that they won’t do what they swear to do if they preside over an election system that produces a winner whose name isn’t “Trump.”

How in the name of good government can this fellow get away with making these specious, egregious and ridiculous allegations?

Donald Trump clearly is the first president in U.S. history to cast such a forbidding pall over a system we know has been compromised already by Russian spooks working to elect Trump in 2016. Indeed, the Russian interference four years ago and their second act that is underway as we sit here makes me wonder whether the “rigging” is working in reverse of what Trump says will occur if he loses his re-election effort against Biden.

None of that will shut the motormouth of Donald Trump. He will continue to defame local election officials. There is no other way to describe what he is doing.

It is defamatory language fit only for an autocratic demagogue. It has no place in a representative democracy that prides itself on the fairness of its electoral system.