Category Archives: national news

national news

Not a bad start for POTUS

Ron Klain has stepped down as White House chief of staff, turning the keys to the West Wing over to Jeff Zeist.

I watched Klain’s goodbye speech to the staff — and to President Biden — this week and was stunned at what Klain said the administration has been able to accomplish in just two years of the president’s (hopefully) first term in office.

He cited the infrastructure bill, climate change legislation, inflation reduction legislation, managing our involvement in Europe’s largest ground war since World War II, reducing the national budget deficit … and on and on.

Well, here’s the video of Klain’s speech. Let him tell the story.

Watch Ron Klain’s full speech as he steps down as White House chief of staff – YouTube

It’s no tall tale, though. I stand with President Biden as he continues to govern with a sense of compassion and idealism that too often gets trampled by the rough and tumble of D.C. politics.

Thanks for your service, Ron Klain. Don’t go too deeply into hiding, in case the president needs to call you for some advice.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Just quit, Rep. Santos!

What you see with this brief blog post is an example of just why a disgraced Republican member of Congress should no longer serve in the People’s House of Representatives.

George Santos lied his way to election from a New York congressional district. Now we hear he might be guilty of campaign fraud and assorted other crimes.

It is no “crime” to lie to your constituents. Still, that this nut case — who lied about every aspect of his personal, professional and educational life on his way to winning a 2022 congressional election — would continue to serve as a member of Congress is offensive on its face.

Furthermore, he cannot be taken seriously, as this meme suggests. It is just one of countless such pictures depicting this fraudulent member of Congress being someone he clearly is not.

Resign from Congress, George Santos … and go far, far away.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

GOP changes formula for fitness

What am I missing as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy doles out committee assignments for the 118th Congress?

Republican House members lost committee seats in the previous Congress for a number of legitimate reasons. Marjorie Taylor Greene likened COVID-19 mask mandates to the Holocaust; Paul Gosar thought it was funny to depict the murder of a Democratic colleague. Now the new speaker has decided to return them to key committee assignments. Oh, and then he seats a pathological liar, George Santos, on two key committees while he is under investigation by the House ethics panel for possible violations of House rules.

Then the speaker boots Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee for — get this! — impeaching Donald J. Trump.

How can one set of hideous transgressions be reversed while dropping the hammer on Democrats simply for doing their constitutional duty?

I don’t get it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Anger permeates our politics

Make no mistake that I will go to my grave never accepting the devolution of our nation’s political climate that has occurred in the past half-dozen or so years.

We have gone from a nation where political foes could break bread together, set aside their differences and act as friends to a nation where pols are afraid of those on the other side of the aisle.

Yes, that fear runs mostly among Democrats who are demonized by their Republican colleagues. The GOP side has taken to inciting physical threats to politicians’ health, to their well-being and to their family members.

What’s the source of this intense animus? Hmm. Let me think. Oh, gosh, it must be Donald John Trump, the former POTUS who stated publicly that it would be OK for rally attendees to “beat the crap” out of protesters. Or that he would be willing to “pay your legal bills” if the authorities brought them up on charges.

This stated expression of outright hostility by a leading politician has bled into the fabric of our system of government. Members of Congress — yes, chiefly Republicans — have echoed that mantra on occasion, suggesting that their opponents are to be reviled and scorned. They are the “enemy.”

To be fair, Democrats have responded with equally harsh rhetoric. Let me clear about something: Democrats have “responded” to their foes’ expressions of hatred. The response comes after the other side delivers the opening salvo.

The late Republican Vice President George H.W. Bush sought the presidency in 1988 by declaring his intention to seek a “kinder, gentler” political climate in Washington. I’m not sure he achieved that noble goal, but his intention was honest and forthright.

Let’s not misunderstand anything here. I don’t mind vigorous debate one bit. I welcome hearing both sides argue their points. I find it exhilarating. What I do mind is when one side accuses the other of hating America merely because they hold a contrary view on a policy matter. I long ago lost count of the number of times I have heard MAGA-leaning pols accuse others of hating this great land because they dispute the right-wingers’ world view.

This level of hatred, simply stated, is unacceptable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Have we become numb to these tragedies?

Eleven people died in a mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif. Seven more people were gunned down two days later up the coast in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Seventeen people are dead in the span of hours in two mass shootings. Yet … the media aren’t covering this latest spate of violence the way it usually covers such events.

What in the world does one make of the national media’s seeming lack of intense interest in this tragic series?

Have we become numb to it all? Is there no longer a compelling interest in the nation?

I have no answers to any of this. I merely am wondering out loud about why these two compelling news stories have been pushed aside and away from the top of our collective minds.

Weird, man. Very weird.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

MAGA cult makes me yearn for Contract with America class

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I never thought it could happen … but it has. The MAGA cult that dominates what passes for today’s Republican Party makes me yearn for a time when another class of GOP officeholders seized power in Congress.

The famous 1994 election that brought us the Contract With America led to Republican control of both congressional chambers for the first time in 40 years.

What makes that revolution different from this one is simple: issues.

The Contract With America class ran on issues. They vowed to enact term limits for members of Congress; they wanted to make Congress live by the laws it enacts on the rest of us; they sought a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. There were others, but the point is that the CWA crowd did something that the MAGA cabal has failed to do.

The CWAers sought to enact issues. Do we hear anything coming from the MAGA crowd that speaks to issues? No. They are vowing only to punish Democrats. They want to put Dr. Anthony Fauci in the dock and question him about the COVID-19 vaccines he has championed. They want to bring charges against Hunter Biden, the president’s son. They intend to punish any Democrat who played a major part in impeaching Donald Trump twice.

The CWA crowd didn’t push issues that I particularly liked at the time. The fact that it did run — and win — on issues rather than vengeance makes me yearn for the “good old days” when we could debate policy matters rather than quarrel over punishing our foes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Classified docs … are everywhere?

When in the world is this going to end, or will it ever end?

First we had Donald J. Trump pilfering classified documents — some of them top-secret docs — out of the White House and stashing them in his glitzy Florida mansion.

Then we learn that President Biden had a few documents in a think tank and then at his home in Delaware.

Now this … news that former Vice President Mike Pence had some classified documents in his house in Indiana.

What the hell?

The Biden docs were from his years as vice president and a few of them date back to his time in the Senate. Trump’s documents were solely from his single term as POTUS.

The find at the Pence house? Who knows their source or their contents?

This is beginning to feel like the tip of the proverbial iceberg. How many other top-flight pols who have left office are there to be discovered? I won’t name names. You know who I mean.

We have several living former presidents and vice presidents out there. We also have a number of former House speakers, Senate presidents pro tempore, key committee chairs and who knows who else possibly with documents that should have been turned in to the National Archives.

Let’s set aside the Trump matter. He has all but acknowledged publicly that he took the documents knowingly and with knowledge of their contents. The rest of ’em? That well might be the work of careless staffers who scarfed up the documents after senior officials had left office.

This is all beginning to have the feel and the appearance of an absurd bit of dark comedy. It’s damn near laughable … except that no one should be laughing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

No similarity … seriously!

A friend posted this on social media, which I am sharing here: I believe it’s possible Biden doesn’t know how they got there … that staffers packed everything up carelessly. 

OK, let’s parse this for a brief moment.

The FBI keeps finding classified documents in President Biden’s home. They were put there after Biden served as vice president. Some of them date back to his time in the U.S. Senate.

Did the president knowingly stash them away? Did he do so with the expressed purpose of doing harm to our national security? C’mon!

Now we have the case of Donald John Trump. He took classified documents from the White House as he was leaving the place for the final time. He took them to Mar-a-Lago, Fla.

Trump has all but admitted taking the documents with full knowledge of their sensitivity. He has admitted to breaking the Presidential Papers Protection Act. He has said “they are mine.” He also has said he “declassified” the documents by “thinking about” declassifying them.

Is there an admission of wrongdoing in Trump’s response? Yep. I believe so. Has Joe Biden made any such admission? Has he said he knew he had those documents squirreled away? Nope.

Thus, my friend is onto something. A VP staffer was careless in handling the documents.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden plays into GOP attack strategy

What does one say about President Biden’s squirreling away of classified documents? Well, here’s what I have so far.

Joe Biden is playing directly into the Republicans’ strategy of attacking the president for anything at any time or for any political purpose.

It is particularly unsettling for those of us who continue to support Joe Biden to see this tempest erupt as Justice Department officials are examining a much-worse situation involving documents taken from the White House by Biden’s immediate presidential predecessor.

The Biden team is making a hash out of this story, giving their foes ammunition to fire at him. They are attempting to attach moral equivalence to the men’s actions. They aren’t remotely similar, other than they represent the presence of classified documents in unsecure places.

The White House communications outfit has to get a handle on this matter, in a major hurry. Any further bumbling by the White House “commo team” only heightens the political peril that Biden faces.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Get a grip, Mr. POTUS!

My head is likely to explode the next time I hear anyone equate two cases of classified documents showing up in private residences of men who hold high public office.

Still, I am about to pull my hair out over the revelations that keep dripping out over the discovery of such documents in President Biden’s home.

Get a grip, will you, Mr. President?

Meanwhile, we have the document scandal that continues to swirl around Donald J. Trump. The ex-POTUS took those documents with him to Florida as he was leaving office in January 2021. Biden’s stash showed up at his home after he served as vice president, leaving that office in 2017.

Biden continues to insist he is cooperating with Justice Department officials … and I believe him; Trump, meanwhile, continues to stonewall as best he can.

Still, I just wish the current president would pull his sh** together and give us a full, complete and transparent explanation into how the hell those documents got into his garage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com