Category Archives: Joe Biden

Joe Biden, media news, medical news, political news

Pandemic is not ‘over’

OK, Mr. President, I feel the need to set the record straight on something you reportedly blurted out on national TV the other evening.

You told “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley that the coronavirus pandemic “is over.” Uh, Mr. President? It’s not over! It’s still with us. Pharmaceutical companies are producing new vaccines and boosters. They’re making them available for schmucks like me to take … and I damn sure am going to receive my second booster shot in very short order.

What troubles me about your careless assertion that the pandemic is “over” is that it well might cause too many Americans to let down their guard.

I also heard what you told Pelley about how so many more millions of Americans are getting vaccinated than there were when you took office. I also heard how you said that the death toll has dropped off dramatically. That’s all true.

However, if the pandemic is “over,” why make such a big deal of having this vaccine booster available?

To be clear, I am not going to join the right-wing cabal of critics in suggesting that you’re “out of touch” or that you don’t have the intellectual heft to stay on the job as president. I am with you, Mr. President.

It’s just that your words carry tremendous weight. I mean, jeez, don’t say things that reverberate the way public pronouncements do. That reverberation is amplified when it involves statements that have killed nearly 1 million Americans and caused enormous anxiety among millions of other Americans.

Look, Mr. President, a member of my immediate family became sickened right after Christmas 2020. We could have lost her! We didn’t. However, she isn’t right just yet.

Others, too, are suffering recurrences of the disease.

Businesses are still “strongly encouraging” masks. Hospitals are offering free instant exams to patients checking in with unrelated emergencies.

Does that sound like a pandemic that has run its course?

It’s still with us, Mr. President.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, media news, national news, political news

Hey, Biden says ‘I intend’ to run

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(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

President Biden made some news tonight during his interview with CBS News’ Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes.”

The president kinda walked back his earlier statement in which he declared he would run for a second term in 2024. In the broadcast tonight, he said he “intends” to seek re-election but that a final decision hasn’t been made.

Hmm. Well, what does one say about that?

It tells me that Joe Biden is keeping his options as open as possible, given the topic that Pelley was discussing with the president.

His age. Biden is the oldest man ever to hold the office of POTUS. The president expressed supreme confidence in his ability to do the job. “Watch me,” he urged Pelley.

OK, I get it, Mr. President. I don’t have a personal issue with Biden walking back a bit his earlier declaration of a re-election effort. I think it’s smart for the president to say only what he intends to do.

A lot of things can happen. They do and this president, who’s been victimized by fate and tragedy in unimaginable ways, at this moment is no longer a declared candidate for president in 2024.

At least not yet.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, International news, Joe Biden, national news, national security

How much longer must the immigrant stunt go?

Two Republican governors — Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida — are doing a fine job of turning human beings’ hardship into a political stunt that they believe will resonate with Americans.

They are engaging in some of the cruelest policy decisions many of us have ever seen. They have decided to send migrants seeking entry into the United States to more liberal-leaning states to … seemingly make some kind of political point.

I wanted to toss a heavy object at my TV earlier this week when I witnessed the image of DeSantis laughing at the torment he is inflicting on immigrants from Latin America. He put 50 of them — including families with small children — on a chartered jet and flew them to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

He told them they would begin processing for entry into the United States. The migrants instead were delivered to an empty parking lot. Ah, but there was DeSantis in Florida, yukking it up over the game he is playing with the lives of desperate human beings fleeing tyranny.

Greg Abbott isn’t any better. He is shipping migrants out of Texas on buses, delivering them to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other communities known to be friendlier toward these migrants.

I understand fully that President Biden’s immigration policy so far is not dealing adequately with the numbers of people seeking asylum and even a safe place to escape the horrors of life in their home countries. However, is the Republican response any better? Do these governors offer any policy alternatives?

No! Instead, they play games with human lives in a disgraceful display of callousness.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, economic news, Joe Biden, national news

Biden helps avert crisis

(AP Photo/Michael Virtanen)

Hey, let’s heap a good bit of good cheer on the Joe Biden administration, shall we? Why the high-five and the back-slap? Because the administration did what Americans expect it to do by stepping in to broker a deal that averted a potentially catastrophic blow to the nation’s economy.

As President Biden might say, this is a “big … fu**ing … deal,” if you get my drift.

Had the strike gone forward, as it was slated to do on Friday, valuable shipments of grain, food, all sorts of commodities, heavy equipment — you name it — would have come to a halt. You want a “supply chain crisis?” There you have it … in spades!

But the tentative agreement, presuming it’s ratified by the unions and the rail lines, means the goods will keep rolling and the crisis will have been averted.

You all know that this blog supports President Biden and the work he is doing on our behalf. I will offer a word of good cheer to the president, because I believe he deserves it. However, the big winner of this deal happens to be the 330 million Americans that the president represents.

Americans keep getting buffeted by doomsayers who suggest the economy is tanking, that “socialists” are poised to take over the government, that the U.S.A has become the “laughingstock of the world.”

The news about the White House stepping up to provide its good offices to end a potentially horrendous labor dispute demonstrates that the opposite of all that is so very true.

As The Hill reports: “It’s a big political risk. If it all blew up, the administration was going to be left holding the bag,” an industry source familiar with the talks said.

How Biden helped avert a rail strike – and another economic crisis | The Hill

It appears at this moment that nothing has blown up. I want to thank the federal government led by President Joe Biden for averting disaster.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, national news, political news

Yeah, Donald, keep blathering

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I am going to steal a thought that appeared first on social media from a member of my family.

My cousin Jim posted an item I want to share: And he recently referred to the sitting president of the United States as the “Enemy of the people.” In Russia, one would disappear after such a comment.

Indeed, think about the idiocy of Donald Trump’s latest rant about the man who defeated him soundly in the 2020 presidential election.

He calls President Biden the “enemy” after Biden rolled up 81.2 million votes, 7 million more than Trump collected, with a 51% majority of all votes cast.

Doesn’t the ex-POTUS understand the irony of making such a hideous statement? In Russia, which is governed by his good buddy Vladimir Putin, he would have been arrested and thrown into some gulag in Siberia simply by making such a ridiculous assertion. And, no, there is no guarantee in Russia of “freedom of speech or expression.”

I know the answer to the question I posed. Trump cannot think at all beyond his own narcissistic desires. Mention the word “irony” to Trump and you might as well be speaking Martian to him.

This individual is a disgrace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Love the tradition

You at this moment are reading the words of a sucker for pageantry, ceremony and even a little bit of pomp. It was with that bias that I was able to watch the return of a longstanding White House ceremony laced with good humor, good tidings and gratitude.

President and Mrs. Biden invited former President and Mrs. Obama back to the White House today to unveil portraits of the Obamas that will hang in the people’s house alongside — as President Obama noted — “George and Martha.”

OK, this isn’t normally the stuff that would fill a blog such as mine. Except for the proverbial elephant that one could almost hear trudging through the White House room where they unveiled the Obamas’ portraits.

That was the memory of the single term of the man who served as president between the terms of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Donald J. Trump could have had a ceremony honoring the Obamas. He chose to throw that tradition aside, alongside other traditions that Trump chose to ignore.

No one mentioned Trump’s name in their remarks to the nation as the pictures were unveiled. There was no need. The Obamas and the Bidens all referred to the “tradition” they were honoring, just as the Obamas did when they unveiled portraits of President and Mrs. Bush, and just as the Bushes did when they welcomed back President and Mrs. Clinton for precisely the same ceremony.

I should point out that in both those instances, presidents of one party honored his predecessor from the opposing party, setting aside partisan differences and disagreements over policy to honor their service to the country.

So, now for The Big Question: Would there be such a ceremony in which Donald and Melania Trump come back to the White House for a portrait unveiling? I almost laughed out loud when I typed those words.

Given all the hatred and the violence that preceded the transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden’s administration … do not hold your breath waiting for the Trumps to return to the White House.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news, national security, political news

Why the hysterical response?

Am I imagining it or is the right-wing cabal of alleged political thinkers acting as if the president of the United States might have hit ’em where they hurt?

President Biden took some national TV time the other evening to blame the “MAGA Republicans” who comprise a shrinking but still significant portion of a once-grand old party for stealing the “soul of the nation.” He also called them a threat to democracy because of their constant threats of violence and their insistence that the 2020 presidential election was the result of “widespread voter fraud.”

The right-wingers have fired back with both barrels. They accuse Biden of inciting division himself. They call him the worst president in history. They excoriate him for offending “half the country” that still supports Donald Trump; actually, it ain’t half, but instead is a significant — but dwindling — minority of Americans who still swallow the swill that Trump is serving.

The hysterical response suggests to me that President Biden has told ’em the truth. Or, as President “Give “em Hell Harry” Truman might say, “He told them the truth and they just think it’s hell.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, economic news, Joe Biden

‘Old jobs’ not as good?

A frequent critic of www.highplainsblogger.com decided to weigh in with a comment about President Biden’s job performance.

He disagrees — not surprisingly — with my assessment of the job growth that has occurred during the Biden administration. My critic says Biden has created “no real new jobs.” That the only jobs being “created” are the old jobs that are being filled again.

Hmm. I rolled that one around for just a moment.

It occurred to me that the old jobs are just as valuable as the new jobs. I mean, those who are filling the old jobs are paying taxes and contributing to the nation’s economic well-being just as much as they would be had they occupied “new jobs.” Isn’t that right?

The critic just cannot seem to grasp that I remain as faithful to Joe Biden as he does to Donald Trump. Except for this important qualifier: Biden defeated Trump in 2020. Oh, and Trump is in a deep pile of dookey over, well … you know.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news

MAGA = serious threat

President Biden is correct to assert that the MAGA wing of the Republican Party poses an existential threat to our democracy.

These are the fruitcakes, the adherents of the Make America Great Again wing of the once-Grand Old Party, who continue to insist that The Big Lie is the Big Truth, that the 2020 election was stolen from the MAGA Liar in Chief and that there must be hell to pay for a transgression that did not exist.

The president has kicked into 2022 midterm election campaign mode. I welcome his return to the fight. Of course, the mainstream Republican Party — which ought to hail the president’s message as a comforting elixir — is condemning him for speaking the truth.

Donald Trump this week called for the immediate removal of Mitch McConnell as GOP Senate leader. Why? Because McConnell — belatedly, of course — is now speaking the truth about Trump, that the ex-POTUS poses a dangerous threat to the democratic process.

Milquetoast Mitch likely won’t fight back with the ferocity that such an insult deserves. He probably doesn’t want to pi** off the MAGA cultists who continue to consume the swill that Trump serves them about The Big Lie and how he’s being “persecuted” by those “far-left Democrats.”

Trump is becoming unhinged daily by defections from his ranks, by continuing negative developments into the investigation of his effort to steal the 2020 election.

There can be no doubt Joe Biden is right on this one, calling MAGA Republicans the nation’s greatest political threat.

They sicken me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news

Expectations have let me down

My expectation of a transfer to smooth governance from an administration that prided itself on chaos, confrontation and confusion perhaps might have placed too large a burden on the new guys who took over in January 2021.

President Biden’s term in office so far has been anything but smooth, seamless and serene. Indeed, the administration has found itself fighting with Republicans in much the same manner its immediate predecessor fought with Democrats.

Except for one little factor that I had hoped would come into play: President Biden brought decades of legislative and government administrative experience to a task to which Donald J. Trump brought none of the above.

Silly me. I didn’t count — as I should have — on Republican obstructionism born out of the GOP’s anger over the way Democrats responded to Trump getting in the way.

But … it has.

To be sure, the president has been able to claim bipartisan victories on gun legislation and on infrastructure renovation. The number of Republican lawmakers to join their Democratic colleagues has been nominal … and that’s the nice way of saying it.

The recent enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act more or less illustrates a point I intend to make, which is that it is dangerous to govern only with the endorsement of those within your own party. Biden received zero Republican support in the House for the IRA. It took a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Harris to put the bill over the top in the Senate.

I had placed a great deal of faith in my belief that Joe Biden’s many decades in government would buy him some political capital that he could spend on behalf of our needs. My faith was misplaced, I am sorry to acknowledge.

Indeed, the president found himself in hot water with Democratic Party progressives because — and this just kills me — he boasted about how he was able to work with narrow-minded Republicans in pushing through legislation.

I continue to stand with President Biden because I believe in the crux of where he wants to lead this nation. He told us he wants us to treat each other with fairness and compassion. He wants to steer us away from the bitterness we heard daily from the four years his predecessor occupied the White House.

That’s all worth endorsing, at least in principle.

Except that Republicans continue to adhere to the politics of meanness and retribution. I hoped that a better day would have dawned by now. Maybe it will … eventually.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com