Monthly Archives: October 2020

national news

Pathological narcissism?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis)92@hotmail.com

We were chatting with friends tonight about this and that when the subject turned to Donald J. Trump.

Specifically, we chatted for a moment about Trump’s inability or unwillingness to mourn the deaths of more than 215,000 Americans from a killer virus.

I noted to our friends that the most astonishing aspect of Trump’s lack of empathy or compassion is that the man himself has lost a member of his family to tragic circumstances. His brother Fred died of alcohol abuse. So, Donald Trump — one could presume — could relate to the pain of others who have lost loved ones to a disease.

Then one of our friends offered an astute observation. “There is some serious pathology going on here,” he said. “Trump is a narcissist,” he said, and narcissism doesn’t allow Trump to exhibit the kind of empathy one would expect from most individuals.

Instead, Trump continues to insist, as he did again today, that we are “turning the corner” on the killer virus despite reports from more than 30 states that illness is surging right along with death from the coronavirus.

We are turning no corners. None. It’s worsening. We still do not have a national plan to attack the illness and to save lives.

Meanwhile, a president who should know better than to say “it is what it is” continues to exhibit an outrageous lack of concern for those among us who are suffering grievous misery.

national news

Biden talks detail; Trump talks trash

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92/@hotmail.com

It’s been clear from the get-go, but it is coming into sharper focus the closer we get to the end of this election season.

It is that Joe Biden speaks in mind-boggling (at times) detail about the policies he wants to enact; meanwhile Donald Trump speaks in insulting and ignorant generalities.

Biden took a question from a young African-American man last night about what he would do to improve the lot of African-Americans, urging Biden to go beyond the “You ain’t black” quip that has gotten into trouble with black voters. Biden’s answer included a litany of policy plans that at times suggested that Biden was talking past the sale. The young man, though, seemed satisfied with Biden’s long-winded soliloquy.

Trump took a question about what plans he had in mind to replace the Affordable Care Act. He offered nothing. No plan. No alternative. No improvement or reform of what he keeps referring to as “Obamacare.”

They spoke to voters at competing town hall gatherings. Biden was in Philadelphia; Trump spoke in Miami.

I sense we’ll hear even more of this startling contrast in the men’s command — or lack of command — of the issues of the day.

Invective and innuendo are how Trump rolls. Biden speaks to us in detail about what he intends to do if he’s elected president of the United States.

I have heard enough of Trump’s trash talk. I want to hear more from Joe Biden.

local news

Happy Trails, Part 187: Yep, they were tough

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

ABILENE, Texas — Our retirement journey brought us to a community that is proud as the dickens of its cowboy/Wild West heritage.

Show the city shows it off with a museum called Frontier Texas. We visited it and came away with a keen appreciation of just how tough the folks were who settled in this region. Not only that, we came away understanding a little better the nature of the Native Americans who were here long before the Anglos arrived.

What did we learn? Let’s see …

We learned about a woman who married four or five times after each of her husbands met untimely and gruesome deaths at the hands of outlaws and of Native Americans. I found myself wondering: Why did she keep seeking love when she had encountered such tragedy? Oh, and her daughter and granddaughter died prematurely and violently, too!

Then there were the bison that were hunted to near extinction by “buffalo hunters,” which is how the museum identified them. “Buffalo killers” would have been a much more apt description.

There is a brief reference to the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon between the Army and the Comanche warriors. The museum mentions that the Army captured 1,400 Comanche horses and then “slaughtered” them. It doesn’t tell you that the soldiers stampeded the animals off the canyon rim.

I have long resisted trying to imagine whether I could live in that era. We cannot control the time we come into this world. I was born in 1949 and I am glad I entered the world at that time. Had I been born, say, in 1849, well, I would have coped with life in that time.

Still, as I look back at the folks who lived in this part of Texas and coped with life and death, I come away amazed and astonished at the grit and courage they exhibited.

It’s just yet another discovery we have made on our journey through retirement. I am quite certain there are many more to find in this big ol’ world.

Donald Trump

Trump torches his britches

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanells_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump says he cannot remember if he got tested for the COVID virus prior to his debate with Joe Biden.

He cannot remember? Really? My goodness, his pants are ablaze.

Here’s the deal, dude. Ask your doctor! The man has a medical staff who get paid good dough to keep the commander in chief in the know about his medical condition.

Well, I don’t believe him when he professes ignorance about a test for a killer virus. Of course he knows. In the remote event he doesn’t actually remember he could place a call to the docs and ask them.

Duh!

Donald Trump

Shouldn’t POTUS know these things?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to ask a question that should have been asked of Donald Trump at the Miami town hall session he held last night.

Trump received a question about conspiracy theorists, such as QAnon — the right wing goofballs who back his candidacy for re-election. “I don’t know anything about QAnon,” he said. It’s a familiar dodge that Trump has employed whenever he gets asked about, oh, white supremacists, or the KKK, or any of the loons who want him re-elected.

The question that never seems to get asked is this: As president of the United States, arguably the most powerful position on Earth, shouldn’t you know about these groups?

Trump seems all too willing to fall back on some sort of “I know nothing” defense of what I believe is the indefensible.

What also is indefensible has been the media’s reluctance to challenge him directly on what to me looks like an obvious follow-up question.

national news

Still frightened at what might occur

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I cannot shake the feeling of fear of what could happen down the stretch in this tumultuous election season.

What might that entail?

It would entail Donald Trump finding a way to cobble together yet another Electoral College victory while collecting as many as 5 million or maybe 6 million actual votes than Joe Biden.

You know the saying about “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Is it possible that we could be fooled a second time by this carnival barker/con man/charlatan?

I suppose anything is possible.

I see the polls each day. I thought I could ignore them. I cannot resist the temptation. They tell me Biden is doing damn near everything right. The polls were also favorable four years ago for Hillary Clinton; it didn’t work out that way.

Trump’s record is hideous. Across the board he has mismanaged our international alliances, our international agreements, the response to the COVID pandemic, the environment, race relations.

I want him out of the White House. I want him gone from the public stage. I want to restore the norms of dignity and decency and decorum to the presidency.

Biden promises to do that. I believe him. I disbelieve everything that comes from Donald Trump.

I also fear that Trump has one more nasty trick up his sleeve.

Oh, how I want him defeated.

 

national news

Yep, I chose the Biden town hall

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I had a chance tonight to watch Donald Trump’s town hall meeting in Miami. I chose to turn in to watch Joe Biden’s event in Philadelphia.

I do not regret that choice.

Joe Biden has my support in the upcoming presidential election. I wanted to hear him interact with voters. To be candid, I thought the quality of the questions outshone the quality of the some of the answers.

However, Joe Biden did not stumble. He didn’t mumble. He didn’t misspeak. He was sharp. He did talk perhaps too much.

I took a pass on Donald Trump. From what I have heard so far I didn’t miss a thing.

local news, political news, State news

Will this surge spell end of Trump Era?

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Harris County, Texas, has set two records in a row since the start of early voting on Tuesday.

Dallas County up Interstate 45 hasn’t done too badly, either.

Oh, and how about Travis County, where the state Capitol can be found? They’re turning out in huge numbers, too.

Same for Bexar County.

What does this mean for the 2020 presidential election. Some Democratic activists believe it bodes well for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and us Bidenistas who want the Democrats to oust Donald Trump and Mike Pence from the White House.

I am not going to count them chickens just yet.

However, I hasten to add that Democrats have been all over TV, radio and in print telling us all to “get out and vote.” If the first two days of early voting in Texas are an indication, the message has been heard. Democrats hope it means Biden and Harris are reaping the ballot-box reward.

Let me crystal clear: I do, too, want them to harvest the electoral fruit of this get-out-the-early-vote drive.

Harris, Dallas, Bexar and Travis counties all are Democratic strongholds. I have acquaintances in blood-red Randall and Potter counties who believe the Democratic ticket is catching fire up yonder in the Panhandle. I … am not so sure about that.

However, the record-setting early-vote turnout in those Democratic bastions gives me hope that just maybe, perhaps, possibly the state could turn from an R to a D on the strength of that monstrous balloting tide.

To be sure, the Trumpkins are turning out as well. They’re flying plenty of “Trump-Pence” flags in rural Texas. Donald Trump, though, isn’t going to pitch a huge early vote among his faithful. Indeed, he wants fewer of us do our patriotic duty. Go figure.

national news

Didn’t miss this spot on the ballot

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My wife and I did our patriotic duty earlier this week and voted in the Texas general election.

Do you know what I did not miss? I did not miss the spot on the ballot that would have allowed me to vote for all candidates of just one party.

The Texas Legislature was bitten by the Bug of Wisdom when it eliminated the straight-ticket spot on our ballots. I normally am critical of the Legislature for this and/or that issue, but they got this one right.

This year I was forced to go down the ballot race by race, name by name. I’ve never voted straight-party in all my years living in Texas. I wouldn’t have punched that spot on the ballot this year were I given the chance.

I did leave a few ballot spots blank. I did, though, walk through each race and I looked carefully at several of the races before making my selection.

That’s the way all of us should vote. I long have detested straight-ticket voting and I have argued for years that it should be eliminated from the ballot in Texas.

I’m glad the Legislature finally listened to me. Therefore, I will take all the credit I deserve.

You’re welcome.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2012/11/straight-party-voting-needs-to-go/

local news

Let the lights shine brightly

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We are going through one of the grimmest years imaginable, with thousands of Americans dying of a viral infection, an economy being shattered and with human beings learning new ways to interact with each other.

However, I want to offer a shout out to a young man who took over as mayor of a community with which I am becoming increasingly familiar.

Farmersville Mayor Bryon Wiebold took office this past spring and he is, shall we say, finding ways to cope with the “new normal.” Weibold has talked the City Council into approving a “Farmersville Lights” event at the end of this tumultuous year. The city is going to light up during Christmas, along Farmersville Parkway from Texas 78 to Main Street. The city’s downtown square will becoming a festive site. Merchants will compete in a Christmas decoration competition. There will be horse-and-buggy rides.

Wiebold’s effort is to end the year on a high. How can it end any worse than what many of us have experienced already?

Farmersville is not unlike many communities across the land in that it has had to cancel events left and right. The COVID crisis has taken a terrible toll on people’s emotions and Farmersville has felt it along with all sorts of cities and towns. I mean, the State of Fair of Texas was canceled in Dallas, and they played the Texas-Oklahoma football game before a sparse gathering of folks scattered throughout the cavernous Cotton Bowl; too bad, as well, because a lot of football fans missed a heck of a game.

Farmersville wants to put a smile on people’s faces and Wiebold, along with Main Street manager Kevin Casey, are crafting an event that the mayor hopes becomes an annual happening.

I have the pleasure of covering the Farmersville City Council for the Farmersville Times, a weekly newspaper that circulates in the Collin County community. I have been pleased to watch this event unfold in real time.

I have to say that Mayor Wiebold’s idea to collect corporate and community sponsorship to fund the Farmersville Lights project is as capital an idea as I can imagine, given the circumstance with which the city is dealing.

At least one Texas community is working actively now to put smiles on the faces of residents who need a reason to smile. May other cities and towns follow suit.

As Wiebold said after getting some push back from one resident who objected to the city proceeding with this effort: “How can you argue against Christmas?”