Category Archives: national news

national news

RFK … oh, how I miss him

Robert Francis Kennedy died 54 years ago today.

He had been shot the previous day just as he declared victory in the California Democratic Party presidential primary. Sen. Kennedy had righted his campaign and well might have won his party’s nomination later that year in Chicago.

He also might have been elected president of the United States in the fall of 1968. Alas, fate had other plans for RFK.

He fought for his life for 24 hours before succumbing to his wounds.

RFK left behind a nation full of those of us who remember fondly his promise of a new day of peace. He wanted to end the Vietnam War, a war he once supported on behalf of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. The carnage on the battlefield and the lack of a winning strategy became too much for RFK.

He wanted American forces to leave Vietnam and he vowed to do whatever he could do as president to ensure that day would arrive much sooner than it eventually did.

I was in my late teen years when Bobby Kennedy died. I would venture to Vietnam the following spring. I came home later as confused as I was when I reported for duty. I kept asking: What was the point, the mission, the end game? I didn’t know and I couldn’t find a senior military officer who knew the answer, either.

I wanted, therefore, to take a brief moment to recall the grievous loss of a political titan who well could have delivered us from the misery we were about to endure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Waiting for an explanation

My patience is vast and deep … but it does have its limits. Particularly as I await a detailed explanation of how the Second Amendment to our Constitution is imperiled by legislation that mandates background checks for firearm purchase and adjusts the minimum age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 years.

Those two elements appear to be the crux of the debate that is now raging in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre. Our hearts remain shattered over the deaths of those 19 children and two teachers in Robb Elementary School.

The National Rifle Association, as expected, has dug in against any legislative solution to gun violence. The NRA and its Republican beneficiaries in Congress continue to press the idea that the Second Amendment is immune from any legislative action. In other words, anything at all damages the Second Amendment and, by golly, we just can’t have that.

Here I sit in the middle of Flyover Country, in gun-lovin’ Texas wondering out loud: What in the hell is wrong with requiring background checks and raising the age from 18 to 21? 

If someone can pass a background check, they get to purchase a gun. If they are 21 years of age and free of any felony conviction, they can buy a firearm. Law-abiding citizens of this country are in no jeopardy of losing their right to “keep and bear arms.” Period. Full stop!

The right-wing demagogues led by the NRA are continuing to throw out the “Democrats want to disarm Americans” canard. It is wrong. It is a shameful appeal to people’s fear over something that is not going to happen.

Once again, someone will have to explain to me as if I am a 5-year-old how the Second Amendment is put in any danger as a result of common-sense legislative solutions.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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‘Rule of law’ strikes

That darn “rule of law” keeps rearing its head in the 1/6 probe into the insurrection on Capitol Hill.

The latest target of the rule of law is former Donald Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, who’s been slapped with a contempt of Congress indictment for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena demanding he talk to the 1/6 panel.

Don’t all those Trumpkins say they honor the rule of law, that no one is above it? Oh, wait! They also say the 1/6 committee examining the insurrection is not legally constituted. Of course, they are full of sh** when they say such a thing.

The House select panel chaired by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson is charged with finding the whole truth behind the insurrection. Navarro was in the White House that day. He knows a lot of what went down as the crowd stormed Capitol Hill and threatened to kill the vice president.

Navarro is refusing to obey the rule of law. Therefore, the Department of Justice has indicted him.

I believe there will be a lot more indictments to come. They will demonstrate to everyone that the Trumpkins are just like their hero, the ex-POTUS. They’re all liars.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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2nd Amendment will hold up

If I sound repetitive with this brief blog post … well, that’s just too bad, because I have to get something once again off my chest.

It is that gun-owners’ rights activists are misstating the perceived threat to the Second Amendment as the nation seeks a legislative remedy to the spasm of gun violence that keeps rocking the nation.

U.S. senators are conducting bipartisan talks to find some solution to this crisis. We are locked in a death struggle against those who continue to deliver horror to innocent victims, such as the lunatic who did that very thing in Uvalde just the other day.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Murphy of Connecticut says he’s never seen such Republican “interest” in ending this crisis until now. He is working with GOP senators, such as John Cornyn of Texas, in that search for a solution.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to “keep and bear arms.” It makes no declaration that legislation is prohibited, that Congress can enact no laws that seek to control who can acquire firearms.

We hear a lot of talk these days about efforts to “disarm” Americans in the wake of tragedies such as the one that struck those children and teachers in Uvalde. I have heard nothing that disarms any law-abiding American.

We can enact laws that require universal background checks for all firearms purchased; we can require Americans to be, say, 21 years of age to buy guns; we can approve red-flag laws that allow authorities to seize weapons from those deemed to be dangerous to own them.

None of those options jeopardizes the Second Amendment! Each of them seeks to enact common-sense solutions that allow every American who plays by the rules to own as many firearms as he or she can afford.

Let us cease with the demagoguery on guns.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Trump stock takes a tumble

Let’s assess the recent election results from down yonder in Georgia.

Donald Trump endorsed a candidate for secretary of state; he lost bigly to the incumbent.

Trump then decided to back the challenger to Gov. Brian Kemp; that challenger lost in a big way, too.

Why did the two incumbents earn the Wrath of Trump? Oh, they just decided to follow the law instead of “finding” enough votes for Trump to steal the election results from Joe Biden, who won the state’s electoral votes in the 2020 election.

The secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, told Trump directly that what he wanted to do was illegal. Trump didn’t listen. He tossed fellow Republican Raffensberger aside and went with the challenger.

Same for Gov. Kemp. Trump endorsed U.S. Sen. David Perdue. Kemp swamped Perdue.

What is so very troubling is that the Georgia effort mirrors the kind of vengeance politics Trump is waging. He went after Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney. He wants her defeated. Why? Because she also backs the rule of law. Never mind that her congressional voting record stands about 90% in line with Trump’s agenda while he held the office of president. Then again, Trump doesn’t give a damn about public policy; he cares only about what politicians do for him or to him.

I cannot help but believe that Trump’s grip on the Republican Party is slipping from his oily grasp. He recently pulled his endorsement of MAGA acolyte Mo Brooks, who since that pivot has experienced a surge in Alabama polls as he seeks to win the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Trump keeps litigating the 2020 election result, which he lost. He has yet to articulate a single notion for the future. Hey, that is no surprise, because he doesn’t have a clue on where this country should go.

The former POTUS, therefore, is boring the GOP faithful to sleep.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Emotional tug-of-war

My emotions are playing a mighty game of tug-of-war with themselves at this horrible moment.

One side has gripped the proverbial rope and is reminding me to “never forget” the tragedy we all saw unfold this past Tuesday morning in Uvalde, Texas. Indeed, my guts are torn by the thought of those 19 precious children and those two educators who were slaughtered by the evil monster.

What’s more, we now are learning almost daily of the failing of law enforcement to act properly to protect the lives lost in that Robb Elementary School classroom. The Justice Department has decided to look deeply into what went wrong; to what end remains unclear.

Pressure on the other side of that tug-of-war match reminds me of the myriad other crises that have been pushed aside: the Ukraine War; the 1/6 investigation underway in Congress; inflationary pressure; the nagging persistence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, I am going to concede this fight to the side that insists we stay focused on the aftermath of the Uvalde tragedy. Where should the aftermath take us? I hope it leads to meaningful efforts by Congress and/or state legislatures to do something finally to wage all-out war against this senseless carnage.

Yes, I also have asked, “When is enough to be enough?” I thought we reached that point long ago. After Columbine, or Aurora, or Newtown, or Sutherland Hills, Charleston, or Parkland, or El Paso, or Buffalo, or Las Vegas.

Is Uvalde the tipping point? I truly don’t know. I only can hope it becomes one.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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‘Solipsistic?’ Wow! Cool word

Occasionally, I have to look up words to find definitions with which I am unfamiliar.

Former Trump administration senior policy adviser — and one-time 2016 campaign manager for Donald Trump — Kellyanne Conway dropped a word on me that forced me to crack open by dog-eared American Heritage man-cave dictionary.

She writes in her new memoir about Trump that his 2020 re-election campaign was “more solipsistic than scrappy.”

Hey, I know what “scrappy” means. The “solipsistic” term got me scrambling. It refers to one’s fixation with one’s self. Gosh. Do you think that fits Donald J. Trump to the proverbial “t”? It damn sure does!

It’s quite a term that I want to nominate for the glossary of cool words that we might hear repeated by media talking heads as they discuss recent political history.

Solipsistic? Yeah, I’m down with that.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Bidens coming to pray and to seek solutions

President and Mrs. Biden — both of whom are familiar with the intense grief of burying a child — are coming to Texas to grieve with the families and friends of the 21 people who died in that horrific massacre that erupted at Robb Elementary School.

For the Bidens, this marks the second such community they will visit in the past two weeks. Recall that they went to Buffalo, N.Y., to extend the nation’s sympathy to the families of the10 victims of the shooter who walked into a supermarket and opened fire.

Now comes this latest unspeakable event.

Nineteen third- and fourth-graders died at the hands of the madman along with two teachers who were trying to shield the children from the bullets.

What does the president say? What can Jill Biden tell them? Yes, they buried an adult son who died from cancer in 2015. What’s more, the president’s infant daughter died in a tragic 1972 car wreck just before he took office as a U.S. senator from Delaware.

They have walked this lonely path before.

Their task, though, ought to be as well to mobilize men and women in Congress to do what they can to prevent future occurrences of this scope and misery. That, I dare say, will be a much steeper mountain to climb than merely hugging victims’ family members.

Still, it is good that they will come to Texas to express the nation’s sorrow over this hideous tragedy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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Teachers are not cops!

I want to make myself utterly and totally clear about something I posted earlier on this blog about arming teachers to stop shooters who murder children in classrooms.

Teachers have no business being asked to do something they possibly — if not probably — never have done in their lives. If we arm teachers, we should not expect them to respond with the cool professionalism that law enforcement officers are trained to do.

Arm teachers? Seriously? | High Plains Blogger

Teachers are there to teach children. Arming teachers is an invitation to a disastrous event.

Imagine putting a pistol in the hands of a 24-year-old teacher fresh out of college and in the classroom for the first time in his or her life. The teacher has received training on firearm proficiency, but has never fired a gun at another human being.

What does one expect would occur if a gunman walks into that teacher’s classroom and starts spraying the room with bullets? How would that freshly scrubbed teacher respond?

Let’s end this discussion about arming teachers and deal realistically with how we can prevent future massacres such as what occurred in Uvalde this week.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

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‘Yes!’ on background checks

Someone will have to explain to me — in a persuasive manner — why the concept of “universal background checks” on anyone purchasing a firearm is so anathema to those on the right-wing fringes of political thought.

The issue has burst back onto our political consciousness in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre that killed 19 precious children and two of the educators who sought to protect them from the madness that erupted in their classroom.

Border Patrol tactical officers killed the shooter.

He purchased the weapons he used to slaughter his victims legally. How did he do that? Because he did not have to undergo a routine “universal background check” to look for any clues as to why he shouldn’t own the weapons.

Those in Congress — the men and women whose campaigns are bankrolled by the gun lobby — keep harping on Second Amendment freedoms. They suggest that any effort to legislate tougher gun laws runs counter to the Second Amendment guarantee of citizens to “keep and bear arms.”

They are wrong!

How can I explain this any clearer? Those who can pass a background check if they purchase a firearm have nothing in the world to worry about? The law-abiding citizenry can arm itself to the teeth. The Second Amendment stands strongly in favor of their right to own weapons.

A legislative remedy, though, does exist if Congress is willing to enact it as a deterrent against those who might have something in their background that can sound alarm bells.

Perhaps the details of such a background check can be worked out. There could be some serious negotiating into what constitutes a deal-breaker if someone seeks to purchase a firearm. Fine. Then work it out!

This so-called constitutional argument, though, against universal background checks is a canard. Those who seek shelter in the Constitution against such safeguards are seeking to frighten the rest of us into believing that government then will seize every weapon in every home from every law-abiding citizen.

That is demagoguery at its worst.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com