Category Archives: national news

national news

Imagine being ‘sold’

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POPLAR FOREST, Va. — The thought came to me as I was touring Thomas Jefferson’s “getaway house” in rural Virginia that made me ponder the debate among Republicans over whether “slavery had its benefits.”

Of course it didn’t! The third U.S. president owned slaves. They were property, just like the farm implements he kept in his storage places, or the horses he let roam in his corrals.

Yet we’re hearing from a Republican candidate for president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who suggests that students need to be taught about the “benefits of slavery.”

I was struck when I read about how President Jefferson needed cash to pay off a big debt. What did he do? He decided to sell the human beings he owned as slaves to help retire the debt.

Imagine for just a moment being sold. Imagine that you might no longer be the property of one man and would become the property of another, a stranger.

I cannot for the ever-lovin’ life of me wrap my head around such a thing. Nor can I see any benefit at any level the idea of being owned by someone who thinks of me as three-fifths of a human being.

My brief visit to this relatively unknown exhibit near Lynchburg opened my eyes even wider to the utter stupidity of such a pronouncement coming from an individual who wants to settle into the Oval Office and lead a nation that comprises descendants of slaves.

We venerate Thomas Jefferson to this day as one of our nation’s founders, but oh brother … he had his serious flaws. Owning human beings was one of them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Chris Christie: the Terminator

What gives with Chris Christie? The former New Jersey governor is turning into a one-man wrecking crew as he campaigns for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024.

He has taken on one by one, in order, Donald J. Trump (the GOP frontrunner … supposedly), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and now South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

He’s ripping them a new one as he seeks to show the GOP primary voting bloc how tough he is. Hey, make no mistake about Christie. He is a former federal prosecutor who wears his legal chops like a badge of honor. That’s fine.

He’s also exhibiting a level of fearlessness we haven’t seen among many of the GOP contenders, particularly as it relates to Trump. Most of ’em seem afraid of the twice-impeached, twice (for now)- indicted former POTUS.

Christie is beginning to stand out as the sole non-coward in this bizarre contest for the GOP presidential nomination.

He reminds me of the Terminator.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, Donald Trump, national news, political news

Trump is a sure-fire loser!

All this media hype and hand-wringing over Donald J. Trump’s apparent skate toward the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination has me on the brink of screaming at the top of my lungs.

I’ll refrain from that, but I will declare here — once again! — that Donald Trump will never enter the Oval Office again.

Let me say it another way. He will not be elected POTUS!

OK. I have said this before about this clown. He proved me, and millions of other prognosticators wrong in 2016 when he slipped past the conventional wisdom and squeaked out an Electoral College victory.

He then proceeded to embarrass himself, the country and endangered the lives of millions of Americans through his negligence in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was impeached twice. He has been indicted by two grand juries and a third indictment is coming up damn soon. There will be others in store.

I am going to place a great deal of faith in the American electorate that rank-and-file Americans are not so stupid that they would actually send this guy back for another turn as head of state and commander in chief.

This individual is profoundly dangerous.

You may stop laughing at me at any moment. Yes, he defied every oddsmaker once already. However, I want to dredge up the saying that President George W. Bush once famously flubbed: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Are we really, seriously ready to send this soon-to-be-convicted felon back to power?

I think not!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

RFK Jr. lost me right away

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. carries the name of the man I most admired in American politics … that is as far as it goes.

RFK Jr. is a conspiracist, a nut case, a man with an agenda that bears no resemblance to reality and he says he wants to run for president of the United States.

I am stunned beyond belief at the way this political scion has conducted himself while seeking the Democratic nomination for POTUS. He says he is anti-vaccine, then denies saying it. He says the COVID virus was targeted to strike people of certain races and religions, then denies saying that, too.

If you speak nicely to him, he’s all yours. If you criticize his comments or take his policy pronouncements to task, you become a “censor.” RFK Jr. does not know the meaning of the word.

Hey, it gets worse!

If he fails to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination next summer, he might embark on a third-party campaign. To what end is anyone’s guess.

RFK Jr. also has contended that Sirhan Sirhan, who shot Sen. Robert Kennedy to death on June 5, 1968 and was caught with the gun in his hand in the LA hotel kitchen that horrible night, didn’t do the heinous deed. What the hell?

Remember, too, that this is the fellow who said he voted for President Biden in 2020. He says his family has deep personal affection for Joe Biden and supports the president’s policies, and that he shares their views of the president. Why, then, is he embarking on this fool’s errand?

Oh, I know. It’s because he is a fool!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Exhibit recalls bygone era

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LITTLE, ROCK, Ark. — Well, I will now be able to check off No. 5 on my list of presidential libraries I have seen … and this one is quite special.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park is a gem. It shines brightly near the Arkansas River just adjacent to downtown Little Rock.

It reminds me foremost of an era when political leaders of different parties could squabble, take the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis and then work together for the common good.

That’s how it was during the two terms of the Bill Clinton presidency.

It has been said over the years that President Clinton is the master of “compartmentalization,” meaning he could put personal animus aside in one corner of his brain and work outside those emotions to craft constructive legislation with his ardent political foes. Clinton’s compartmentalizing was put to the extreme test during his second term as POTUS.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives impeached Clinton for lying to a grand jury about an affair he was having with a White House intern. The library does not ignore that event. It mentions it on two panels displayed chronologically. It doesn’t mention the reason for the president’s commission of perjury, only that he lied to a federal grand jury. It also mentions that the House impeachment vote was virtually taken along partisan lines.

The president apologizes for his “conduct,” a display tells us.

Enough about that.

The library also tells of the myriad accomplishments that Clinton achieved: the peace treaty between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel; the ouster of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic; the balanced federal budget; his tireless work on behalf of racial minorities; a comprehensive crime prevention bill.

We have seen elements of this kind of cooperation between the GOP and the current Democratic POTUS. Here and there, though, is not sufficient to move the country forward constructively. President Clinton and the GOP congressional majority with whom he worked — while they were, um, testy at times — laid the groundwork for the way government ought to work.

The Clinton library tells us that story. I am glad to have seen it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

30 years? Already?

I was talking to a family member a while ago and told her of my intention to visit the Bill Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., when I pull into the city some time Thursday.

Then I said, “I cannot believe it’s been 30 years since he was elected the first time. Thirty years!”

I cannot guarantee I’ll get there, but I certainly intend to see it, given that I’ll be in Little Rock overnight.

I want to relive the days when Democrats and Republicans could find common ground, even as GOP lawmakers and their acolytes sought to dig up dirt on President Clinton and his wife, Hillary. Indeed, the Clinton administration, working with Republicans in Congress, crafted the first balanced budget in 30 years in 1999.

Remember, too, that the GOP took control of Congress with its Contract With America theme in 1994. The Republican victory gave us Newt Gingrich of Georgia as speaker, the guy who told us he intended to make Democrats the “enemy of ‘normal’ Americans.'”

Yes, I am acutely aware of the impeachment that fell on Clinton. The GOP was looking for reasons to impeach the Democratic president, and he gave it to them by lying to the grand jury about the soiree he was having with the White House intern.

All told, we witnessed one of the more successful presidencies in recent memory. President Clinton has assembled an exhibit that I am sure will accentuate the successes.

I hope to take it in … and long for a return of the good old days that in Clinton’s case are fading rapidly into the distant background.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Still ‘no!’ on term limits

With all the back and forth about political corruption and calls from prominent pols to enact term limits on members of Congress … my position on that matter remains fundamentally unchanged.

We don’t need mandated term limits for politicians who run for Congress. Indeed, we already have them. They occur every two years for House members and every six years for U.S. senators. They are elections.

I also want to disabuse you of the myth that Congress is overrun by longtime House members and senators who have been in office since The Flood. A Congressional Quarterly study done years ago pointed to a healthy turnover of politicians serving in Congress. The study showed that a tiny minority of lawmakers had been in office for more than, say, three or four terms.

As a practical matter, getting Congress to approve a constitutional amendment mandating term limits is problematic, to be sure. That is what it would take for such a proposal to become law. We have our share of pols who say they favor term limits, then they run for re-election to their umpteenth term. Some of them do so successfully; some do not.

There you have it. Term limits at work in Congress.

I once harbored the notion that we should repeal the 21st Amendment limit presidents to two terms. Enacted in 1951, the amendment was meant to prevent presidents from seeking more than two terms after President Roosevelt was elected to office four times. He died just a few weeks after taking office for his fourth term.

The office does take its toll on the occupant, as FDR’s demise — in his mid-60s — demonstrated. Therefore, keep the 21st Amendment on the books.

Members of Congress, though, do not need to be ordered out of office. The voters will have their say if enough of them think their congressman or woman is doing a lousy job.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news

Trump Fatigue sets in

You may choose to believe or disbelieve what I am about to say, but it’s true … which is that I am getting weary of all things Donald John Trump.

Yes! I want this to end! I want to stop thinking about what this idiot might do next to call attention to himself. I want to get on with serious policy discussions about serious policy differences between serious political leaders.

Trump offers nothing serious or sober to any of this. He offers only drama, chaos, narcissism, threats against democracy.

He is in the middle of multiple legal battles, none of which is likely to end well for him. If he’s convicted, say, of violating the Espionage Act in hiding those documents at his joint in Florida, he’ll fight the prison sentence that awaits him.

People such as me will comment on it, as we must. I don’t want to do it, but I will.

Just to be crystal clear: I do not believe Donald Trump will be elected POTUS. I remain dubious as to whether he will remain in the campaign for the White House.

He will remain on center stage, though, as an ex-POTUS and rabble rouser extraordinaire.

I just want him to vanish. Forever.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

End of era: end of division

We all know this about this so-called Era of Donald Trump: It will end eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later.

When it does, it is my sincere hope to see friendships rekindled and rebuilt, even among family members who have split between two camps: the MAGA cult and the Never Trumpers.

I lo.ng ago lost count of the number of times people have told me how they avoid certain friends or family members because of their political differences. Specifically, these friends of mine tell me it has to do with their loyalty to Trump.

“I just can’t stand to be around them,” these folks say with more than a slight air of frustration and sadness. To be truthful, I don’t hang out with the MAGA cultists, so I generally only have heard from the anti-Trump side. So, forgive me for not having a more complete picture of the great divide that has split the nation.

This divide among friends and family is worse than anything I’ve ever witnessed in real time. I am 73 years of age. I came of age during the Vietnam War. I went there for a time to serve my country. There were those in families who supported the war and those who opposed it. I do not recall ever discussing with anyone whether they should talk to their family members because of policy differences relating to the war.

Not long after Vietnam came Watergate. A team of numbskull burglars got caught breaking into the Democratic Party’s office complex in DC. Then came the coverup. President Nixon abused the power of his office to obstruct justice. He was on the road to impeachment when he resigned the presidency in 1974. Again, do I recall family members becoming estranged over that? No.

You are free to correct me if you experienced such a thing. I merely am saying I did not see it first hand.

This time it’s different. A former president has been indicted twice for crimes. The House of Reps impeached him twice, only to see that effort fail to obtain a conviction because of a lack of courage in the U.S. Senate.

And there has been plenty of wreckage spread along the way, even as Trump has sought to overturn the results of a legitimate presidential election.

When the Trump Era ends is anyone’s guess. It could end with the Republican Party primary season in 2024. It could end with a conviction perhaps at the end of this year on one of those indictments. It could end with — dare I say it? — Trump’s demise.

I just know it will end eventually. I hope the damage this demagogue has inflicted on families and friendships isn’t permanent.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Fourth’ was prelim to great main event

Americans today are marking the 247th birthday of this nation’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

Yes, it is a date worth commemorating, worth celebrating and worth honoring. The reality, though, is that this day was a preliminary event to the real thing, which occurred after the American Revolution ended in 1781.

Our Declaration of Independence launched a war that took thousands of American lives. It is a masterful document penned by a man who would become our third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. It speaks to the many issues that forced the United States of America to declare its existence … and to go to war with the English Crown.

After the last shots were fired at Yorktown, Va., the hard began. It would take several years. Finally, there emerged a Constitution. The nation’s governing framework was given life.

It is under assault today, which brings me to the point I want to make with utmost pride and vigor.

Which is that the Constitution, i believe fully, is strong enough to withstand these challenges from within our borders. A presidential candidate lost an election three years ago but refused to concede the obvious. He sought to overthrow the government as it sought to certify the results of the 2020 election. He failed only because members of his own political party refused to do his bidding.

They were faithful to the Constitution and the oath they took to honor, defend and protect it.

Our Constitution has withstood many challenges over its more than two centuries of life. I will stand foursquare on my belief it will stand firm against this challenge and — I will hope — against any that arise in the future.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com