Category Archives: national news

local news, national news, political news

An independent view? Yes!

Every now and then, someone among my social media friends network will ask: Are you a Democrat … or what?

I am going to answer that one. I am an “or what.” That is to say I consider myself an independent who leans more toward the Democrats than to the Republicans.

However, I vehemently oppose straight-ticket voting. I applauded the Texas Legislature for eliminating that option for voters.

We don’t “register” in Texas with either party. Our primaries are considered open voting events. We go to the polling place and decide when we get there which primary will get our vote: Democrat or Republican.

I have entered the GOP primary many times over the years, particularly when we lived in Randall County, Texas. The Panhandle county is as exclusively Republican as any in the state, which means that Democrats rarely field candidates for countywide or legislative offices. That leaves voters such as me to decide to vote in the Republican Party primary to have our voices heard in government.

We have since moved from Randall County to Collin County, which is a more diverse region. We have seen our share of “Vote Republican” lawn signs, but we also see a smattering of “Vote Democrat” signs as well as we travel around the county. Such Democratic-leaning signs are not to be seen in good ol’ Randall County.

My point is to tell you that my voting record does lean heavily in the Democrats’ direction, but it is far from exclusively so. I am reluctant to attach a party label to my political principles.

My hope always has been that both Republicans and Democrats can believe in and work toward “good government.” Sadly, at this moment only the Democrats appear inclined to achieve that noble end.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, local news, national news

POTUS has bigger fish to fry

Butt out. Mr. President.

Joe Biden has weighed in on what is a quintessential local problem. It involves members of the Los Angeles City Council who were caught saying some nasty things about fellow Los Angelinos, namely Black, Asian and indigenous people.

Folks throughout LA are up in arms. They are demanding their resignation. As they should.

President Biden calls on all participants of racist LA City Council leaked audio to resign (msn.com)

But what is the president of the United States going to contribute by offering his own view on it? Is he trying to lend the huge weight of his office to this fight? “He believes that they all should resign,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable and it was appalling.”

OK, fine. Let him believe it to his heart’s content. President Biden need not weigh in on an issue that should be resolved exclusively at City Hall. The president of the United States has many other more pressing issues to ponder that involve protecting the rest of the country he was elected to govern.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Most important election in history? Yep, this is it!

You hear it, without fail, every two years, that “this is the most important, most consequential election in our lifetime, if not in history!

It’s being bellowed and blustered again as the 2022 midterm election approaches. You know what? This one just might fit the bill, given what’s at stake and what could be the fate of the democratic system of government that we all say we cherish.

The importance of this year’s midterm election has its root in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump refused to concede that he lost to Joe Biden. Then came the 1/6 insurrection, the assault on our Capitol Building, the effort to stop the certification of the election results.

Trump continues to foment The Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud.” His lying has spawned a new category of candidates. We call them “election deniers.” They are running for seats in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, for governorships, for secretary of state in many states where they serve as chief election officers.

They are running neck-and-neck in many states with “mainstream” candidates who want them defeated not just to protect their constituents from the lunacy they are promoting, but to protect our democratic system of government.

It’s the closeness of many of these contests including candidates who continue to deny the 2020 election result that simply boggles my noggin. The Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race, the race for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat, the battle for the Senate seat in Georgia, campaigns for governor in Pennsylvania, Arizona and even in Texas.

The U.S. Senate is divided 50-50, but Democrats hold the edge — for the moment — because they have a vice president who can break tie votes. A swing of a seat or two in either direction means (a) that Republicans will take control and become even more obstructionist for the next two years of President Biden’s term or (b) that Democrats can gain something close to a governing majority and move on important legislation aimed at restoring some sort of balance of power.

It’s being said that a “presidential-year turnout” bodes well for Democratic candidates, and a “normal midterm election turnout” bodes well for Republican candidates.

Me? I am hoping for a huge turnout that rivals what we saw in 2020, with Joe Biden and Donald Trump together polling more than 155 million votes. It was a stunning turnout. It means that democracy is alive and well.

May it continue to show good health and vitality this year, too.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news, political news

The Trump hits keep coming

Donald J. Trump is clearly the gift that keeps on giving, with every revelation, every new development, every single lie he is caught uttering.

Now comes word that he sought to work out a deal with the National Archives to keep secret information related to his 2016 involvement with Russia during that year’s presidential campaign.

The deal never came through, but the revelation adds more fuel to the inferno that is beginning to consume the former president and his efforts to keep presidential records away from the public … which is the rightful owner of these documents.

Legal experts now say it’s no longer a matter of “if” Trump gets indicted by the Department of Justice, but now is a matter of “when” the attorney general will drop the hammer.

Legal experts: Russia link to Trump documents means it’s a matter of “when, not if” he is indicted (msn.com)

I cannot stop shaking my noggin over this stuff.

It reveals all the things many of us feared the moment Donald Trump took the oath of office to become POTUS, that he had no understanding of the importance of managing high-level communications. He treated all of them as they were his personal property. They aren’t.

Now we have this latest bit of drama.

Ugghh …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news

Trump admits guilt … bring it!

(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Whoever serves these days as Donald J. Trump’s legal advisers surely must know that they have an imbecile for a client. Why do I say that?

Because … at that rally over the weekend, The Donald took it upon himself to admit to taking documents from the White House and squirreling them away in his glitzy Florida estate. He all but admitted to committing a crime!

Let’s see. I believe that’s what the FBI was seeking to determine when they searched Trump’s home and discovered all those documents. Isn’t that correct?

What’s more, the Donald keeps lying about what transpired when the FBI searched his joint. He suggests it was a “raid.” He implies they forced their way in. He keeps insisting no one knew they were coming. Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

Oh, and he accuses the FBI of “planting” evidence.

Hah! Didn’t happen, Donald.

Any reputable lawyer in the country would advise their client to shut the hell up, to not talk out loud about a pending criminal case. Maybe The Donald’s legal eagles advised him as such. Maybe he ignored them. The Department of Justice is examining whether The Donald broke the law by taking documents from the White House, some of which were marked “top secret.”

Do I need to remind everyone that a conviction of a crime could bring some prison time to the former POTUS?

Whatever the case, the individuals who have taken on the task of defending the indefensible — the taking of classified documents from the White House — now must understand fully what millions of Americans know already.

The former president of the United States — in the words of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — is a fu**ing moron!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news

Racist senator earns condemnation

Wow! That was my first reaction to reports of what a U.S. senator said during a Donald J. Trump political rally over the weekend. He sought to label Black Americans as criminals.

It was as blatantly racist a statement as anything I’ve heard since the 1960s.

This came from the pie hole of Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, according to Yahoo.com:

As Republicans press crime as an election issue, Tuberville contended Democrats back reparations for descendants of slavery because “they think the people who do crime are owed that.”

“They are not soft on crime,” Tuberville said. “They’re pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”

Holy … crap!

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville promotes racist narrative about Black people, crime at Trump rally (yahoo.com)

This is an individual elected from a state with a population that is 26% Black. He was elected in 2020 to the U.S. Senate with zero experience in elective politics. He is a former football coach who worked with dozens of Black athletes.

Still, he said this. At a Trump campaign rally. Oh, and get this: The crowd that heard it clapped and cheered the speaker.

“They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed. that.” I just felt the need to repeat that statement. It defies logic. Or humanity. Or anything resembling decent thought from someone elected to the U.S. Senate.

This is part and parcel of what has become of the Republican Party. It saddens me to say this, given that the party once held the key to enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Remember the “party of Abraham Lincoln?” It’s gone, man!

It’s been replaced by and large by something quite different, as exemplified by the mutterings of individuals such as Tommy Tuberville.

Black people are criminals, he says. Democrats demand reparations because those who “do the crime are owed that,” he says.

The English language cannot do justice to what is stirring in my gut at this moment.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news, national security

Mullen to POTUS: cool the rhetoric

Mike Mullen wore a Navy uniform for many decades; he went to war for this country and served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So, when a distinguished officer admonishes the commander in chief over some tough talk about “nuclear Armageddon,” I am inclined to take the admiral’s words seriously.

So should President Biden.

Mullen went on TV this weekend to offer his take on the Ukraine War and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s implied threat to use tactical nukes to put down the Ukrainian resistance to his illegal invasion. Biden has talked about Armageddon and said we’re closer to that catastrophe than we have been since the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Mullen wants Biden to cool it. We need to persuade Putin to negotiate his way out of the quagmire in Ukraine. Issuing warnings about what will happen to Putin if he decides to use more dangerous weapons against Ukraine won’t work, Mullen said.

He’s right. At least I am going to presume he is right. The man knows a thing or three about warfare. Pay heed to his advice.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, crime news, Donald Trump, legal news, national news

Tax returns … still a viable question?

Hey, whatever in the world of high-powered accounting happened to the cries for Donald J. Trump’s tax returns? You remember that, right?

Many of us wondered why Trump wouldn’t release his returns, as presidents and presidential candidates had done since 1976. Trump at first said he would; then he backed off; then he pledged to release them once the taxman completed his audit; then he backed off … again!

Courts have ruled he had to release them. He continues to resist.

Wait a second, though. We’ve been buried up to here with other sorts of finance-related news involving Trump. The New York attorney general has sued the Trump Organization for $250 million, alleging that Trump falsified his net worth to obtain favorable loans.

And then — of course! — we have a myriad of criminal investigations into Trump’s conduct during the 2020 election and immediately after the election that he lost to President Joe Biden.

I remain one of the millions of curious Americans who wants to know:

  • Whether Donald Trump is as rich as he kept bragging about.
  • How much, if anything, he gave to charitable causes.
  • The extent of his foreign business dealings and whether he does business with despicable tyrants in, say, Russia.

Those are three items. You likely have more issues to resolve with this guy.

Trump has defied conventional presidential wisdom at so many levels. The tax return issue is just one of them.

The issue of the tax returns has been eclipsed, or so it appears, by all those other matters involving Trump, The Big Lie, the insurrection, falsifying assets, conspiracy to commit sedition.

Good grief, all those other matters seem to make Trump’s refusal to disclose his tax returns seem almost … quaint. Actually, though, it isn’t. Trump’s refusal to do what so many previous presidents and candidates for the high office have done speaks mightily of his lack of character.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

Cheapening of values

Americans of all stripes are witnessing in real time how our political values no longer hang on politicians’ stated views of key issues and their actions juxtaposed to their stated policies.

Consider what is occurring in Georgia, where the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate — Herschel Walker — has been revealed to be a stunning hypocrite on an issue that demands absolute sincerity.

In any other era, revelations that a staunch opponent of abortion would allegedly have demanded a girlfriend abort a pregnancy would spell the end of a candidacy. Herschel Walker would have resigned his candidacy and left the campaign for someone else to salvage.

These days? Georgia GOP voters are shrugging it off. Party leaders are backing Walker, doubling down on their support for this ignoramus who actually has said that “there is no shame” in demanding an abortion “if I had done it.”

Oh, there’s more. It has been revealed that Walker has four children with four women and has been estranged from at least one of his sons since the young man’s birth.

Remember, too, that Walker is campaigning as an evangelical Christian who opposes — he says — abortion in all cases; he makes no exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest or the health of the mother.

Despite all of that, Walker remains a potential spoiler in the race against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the incumbent who is seeking election to a full term.

Walker could still win this race! Why? Because it’s all about power! Republicans want to get control of the Senate. They are driven solely by the prospect of Herschel Walker — an individual with zero knowledge of any public policy — defeating a competent senator who, by the way, also serves as senior pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta … the same house of worship where the great Martin Luther King Jr. preached to the faithful.

Yes, we are witnessing a degradation of policy and the ascent of power as this hideous issue plays out.

It is a sickening turn of events.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news, national news, political news

Fighting internal battle

Those among my friends who know a lot about me likely presume that I tend to think the best in people … until others prove my initial belief in them is wrong.

They would be correct in making that assumption.

With that said, I must declare that I have been in the middle of an internal struggle as I seek to maintain that generally optimistic view of our fellow travelers. Yes, I want to maintain what I consider to be a charitable view of others.

It’s the current mood out there that has tainted damn near everything for me. Political adversaries no longer are just friendly foes; they are enemies. Make no mistake about the source of that visceral anger. It comes from the MAGA crowd, the individuals who parrot the nonsense spewed forth by titular head of today’s Republican Party, the 45th president of the United States.

The anger is pervasive. It permeates so much of, well, damn near everything. The 45th POTUS told us during his inaugural speech about he intended to stop the “American carnage.” He waved the clenched fist, which has become a sort of symbol of the rage he embodies to this day.

Meanwhile, instinctive optimists such as yours truly are caught in the maelstrom that threatens to suck us under. We get pulled into the negativity that emanates from others. I can’t speak for others, but from my perspective, I dislike the feeling that keeps boiling up within me. It goes against my nature … you know?

A few of my journalism colleagues over the years have dismissed my optimistic view of others. They all cling to some notion that they needed to reserve a level of “cynicism” when encountering sources or assessing the context of a discussion. I would suggest to them that I know the difference between “cynicism” and “skepticism.” Accordingly, I was able to maintain a certain skeptical eye.

The mood out there has gone beyond simple skepticism and has devolved into a cynical view I find unhealthy.

Thus, I shall fight to retain — or recover — my instinctively positive view of the world … even as the forces around me seek to drag me down.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com