Monthly Archives: November 2020

national news

Consumed by returns

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am trying to find something about which to write on this blog.

I can’t get there. My mind is consumed by the presidential election returns that are trickling in.

Yes, the world is full of topics that deserve comment on this blog. They’ll just have to wait for another day.

As for the election, there is next to nothing to say at this moment, or perhaps even the next moment, until we have some clearer notion on who wins this contest.

You know already that I want Joe Biden to win. I am going to wring my hands now, grit my teeth and wait along with the rest of the world for the returns to tell us something we need to know.

My anxiety had been replaced by serenity. Anxiety has returned.

In full force.

media news

Waiting, waiting, waiting …

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Back when I worked full time for newspapers, this was the night we all cherished and perhaps even dreaded.

Election Night would bring us into our newsroom; I would be stationed in the editorial page office. Our reporters were spread out, manning phones or in the field covering election returns from polling places, or from campaign headquarters.

I generally would await election results and then prepare a next-day editorial commenting on the news of the day, which dealt with who won or who lost. We would try to offer a modicum of perspective, even as events were unfolding in real time in front of us.

I no longer do that. I sit at home. My wife and I are watching news shows that are telling us all we need to know, and even all we might not want to hear.

However, nights like this remind me of the thrill that came with reporting and commenting on issues, seeking to put it into context and to ensure we deliver the next day as complete a package of news reports and commentary as we could to thousands of folks who actually — in the old days — used to depend on their daily newspaper to inform them.

The old days are gone forever. However, my interest in politics and policy remains quite strong. I no longer attend newspaper vigils awaiting election returns. I do retain a serious interest in what those returns mean to the community where I live and to the nation I love.

This year certainly has heightened that interest, elevating to a level I cannot recall since, oh, the first time I got to vote for president in 1972. I was a youngster then, full of pi** and vinegar. These days I am so much older and decidedly less, um, zealous.

The interest remains high. But I’ll leave the deadline pressure of getting the news out on time to the youngsters. Have at it, gang. I’ll pick my newspaper off the driveway in the morning.

national news

Serenity replaces anxiety

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am feeling a strange sense of serenity … which has overtaken the anxiety I expressed in an earlier blog post.

The world is awaiting the closing of those East Coast polling locations in anticipation of a presidential election many folks are calling the “most important in our lifetime.”

If you’re an old man like me, that’s really saying something. Indeed, the Joe Biden-Donald Trump matchup is, to borrow a term, really yuuuge.

Damn near every pundit this side of Nostradamus is predicting a Biden victory over the Voter Suppressor in Chief, Donald J. Trump.

Then again …

We heard much of the same thing four years ago when “President” Hillary Clinton was supposed to bury Trump. She didn’t. We got stuck with the carnival barker who for four years has been masquerading as president of the United States.

I should be anxious. Oddly, though, I am not. I am serene. I am happy that it’s almost over. I want Biden to win. I want Trump to lose bigly and then to concede — even if he does so in a typically boorish Trumpian manner.

Here is the thing,  though. Even if it goes badly tonight at the tippy top of the ballot, we still might get a Congress that is controlled fully by the loyal opposition. That means Donald Trump will be unable to perform any legislative hocus pocus, as if he even has a clue on how to do anything that involves actual governance.

Until then, I remain cautiously optimistic we are in for a landmark election decision that returns civility, compassion, empathy and smart government to the White House.

I’ll see you on the other side.

local news

Dial it back, partisans

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The partisan juices are flowing on this Election Day.

We’re going to elect a president and a whole lot of other officeholders up and down the ballot. This morning I had an encounter with a Democratic partisan who, I hasten to add, needs to dial back her political fervor more than just a little bit.

She was wearing a Biden-Harris shirt while sitting in front of First Baptist Church in Princeton, Texas, one of Collin County’s many polling locations. I was there to snap a picture for KETR-FM public radio. I told my new acquaintance I had voted already but was there to take a picture.

After I whispered to her that I had voted for her guy for president, she informed me of the “need” to “elect more Democrats to the City Council and the school board.”

Huh? Eh? What? I reminded her immediately that council and school board members serve as non-partisan public servants. They aren’t affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties. She said she knows that, but added that a school board candidate wants to “ban masks” in schools, meaning that the individual is clearly a Republican. No, no, no, I said. We cannot push partisan politics onto non-partisan governing bodies, I admonished her.

Well, I guess that encounter exemplifies the partisan fervor that has hit a fever pitch.

Election Day will come and go. We’ll awaken in the morning to another sunny day. I hope we have a new president waiting to take office. As for the Princeton City Council and the Princeton Independent School District Board of Trustees and their political composition … let’s not inject partisanship into those races. Those folks are in office to the public’s business without regard to which party they might belong.

national news

Anxiety settles in

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We have arrived at Election Eve 2020.

I am about to tell you what I am feeling at this moment. I am feeling as anxious and as downright giddy as I did when I voted for the very first time for president of the United States.

That was in 1972. The contest between President Richard Nixon and Sen. George McGovern didn’t turn out the way I wanted. You know how it went: Nixon won a 49-state landslide.

I was not quite 23 years of age then. The voting age had been set at 18 in 1971 with ratification of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, so I was ineligible to vote in 1968. Instead, I was inducted into the U.S. Army and spent some time in Vietnam in 1969.

I came home in 1970 confused about the Vietnam War. The 1972 election featured two men with vastly different views on matters of war and peace. President Nixon vowed to stay the course and continue a gradual withdrawal; Sen. McGovern wanted to pull out immediately. I sided with McGovern, given my own confusion about the war.

I was giddy then because I did not foresee the drubbing my candidate would suffer. However, casting my first vote for president was a big deal for me then.

Here we are in the present day. Casting my most recent vote for president feels every bit as big now as it did then. The reasons differ.

I was horrified four years ago by the election of Donald Trump. I am hopeful in the extreme that I can be part of what I hope is a serious course correction. Without that correction, I fear for the direction that Trump might drag this nation. I voted with extreme enthusiasm for Joe Biden.

The nation needs to rescue itself from the mistake it made when it allowed Trump to score a fluky Electoral College victory. You know the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

Oh, man, my hope on Election Eve is that we won’t shame ourselves a second time. I am anxious tonight. I also am hoping I can get a good night’s sleep.

national news

‘Fire Fauci?’ Really?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump considers himself to be a serious man.

I consider him to be a buffoon, a blowhard and a know-nothing politician.

So, when he eggs on a rally crowd that starts yelling “Fire Fauci!” and then urges them to wait until “after the election,” I am convinced beyond a doubt that Trump is out of his vacuous mind.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infection disease expert, had the temerity to declare that the nation is in a poor position as it seeks to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Oh, and then he said Joe Biden is taking the right approach to fighting the disease, while Trump is taking the wrong tack.

The Trumpkins started the chant. Trump listened to them for a few moments, then urged them to wait until after the election … presuming he gets re-elected. Then he might cut Fauci loose.

I have been saying for some time now that Fauci needs the platform to tell us the truth about the coronavirus. I no longer listen to anything that flies out of Trump’s mouth. He doesn’t know whether to sh** or shine his shoes regarding the pandemic. Fauci, on the other hand, is the pre-eminent infectious disease expert on Earth.

Here we are. On the cusp of an election. Trump hasn’t offered us a clue on where he wants to lead us in a second presidential term. He has now resorted to taunting one of the world’s most serious men over his views on the mishandling of a disease that has killed more than 230,000 Americans.

Disgraceful.

national news

Searching for ‘a more perfect Union’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The men who created the government to which we adhere today were smart enough to avoid committing themselves to creating a perfect nation.

Oh, no. The preamble to our Constitution declares their intent to create a “more perfect Union.” What it suggests, then, is that perfection is likely an unattainable goal.

So with that in mind, we are marching tonight and then in the morning toward an election that many of us hope make this Union a good bit “more perfect.” 

Donald Trump is running for re-election as president. He is facing a former vice president, Joe Biden. I want Biden to win this election. You know that, yes?

The candidates are pulling out all the stops as they storm across the key states that will decide this election. To that end, it is incumbent that enough citizens exercise their right to vote. The early turnout numbers are encouraging in the extreme; 93 million-plus of Americans have voted already. The final number of ballots being cast could top 150 million, which would be an all-time record.

Does that turnout produce a perfect government? Is that enough all by itself to suggest we cannot do better? Of course not. Perfection isn’t possible … remember?

The early-vote turnout was spurred by pleas from politicians — notably Democrats — who implored us to vote as early as we could to ensure our voices are heard. We heard their message in our house and we voted on the first day we could cast our ballots in Texas.

Americans have watched the presidency dragged into the dirt by an  unqualified, unfit individual. Donald Trump boasts about all he’s done for the country. What he’s done to the country is a more appropriate measure. We have moved farther from a “more perfect Union” during Trump’s term in office.

I truly believe that electing someone such as Joe Biden, a man who knows government and public policy, will restore the effort the founders laid out when they built the framework upon which we formed our government.

May the search for a “more perfect Union” commence.

national news

Wanting to be done with 2020

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Is it too early to wish 2020 a none-too-fond farewell?

If not, I will do so. If it is too early, I will do so anyway!

For reasons of which we are all aware, this has been one of the worst years imaginable. That damn coronavirus has shut us down, allowed a partial reopening, shut us down again. It has forced confinement to many of us to our houses. We can’t eat at our favorite restaurants.

We are wearing masks. We carry hand sanitizer with us.

Oh, and the young people? They have been denied proms, graduation ceremonies and in-person learning in classrooms.

We cannot go to our house of wor. Or watch our favorite sports teams in person.

And on top of all that, we have endured a miserable presidential campaign and watched the incumbent POTUS make an ass of himself by refusing to comply with the rules set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has created an environment that has infected hundreds of his followers.

I am ready for the year to end. The next year won’t bring immediate relief from the misery when it arrives on Jan. 1.

But that brings me to a glimmer of hope that might await us.

My new year celebration will be enhanced if we are able to welcome 2021 with the prospect of a new president getting ready to take office. I cannot even begin to ponder the possibility that we’ll be stuck with the Liar in Chief for another four years.

My hope springs eternal that we can shove 2020 out the door with the hope of a brighter future on the horizon.

national security

Waiting for the result

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have a friend of many years — more than 50 of them, in fact — who wants Donald Trump to be re-elected president of the United States.

My friend posted this today on Facebook: Trump haters I will be so glad when this madness is over. If Trump wins I will not gloat and if Biden prevails, then so be it.

This fellow, my old pal, is a better man than I am … I reckon.

Why? Because of Joe Biden is elected president I am likely to crow just a bit. I hope it doesn’t devolve into gloating. There just will be so much to say about the potential end of the Donald Trump Era of Presidential Politics.

I will agree with my friend on this point: We have been through a period of “madness.” I suppose the latest manifestation of it occurred on a highway between San Antonio and Austin when a horde of Trump supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris bus en route to Austin, slowing traffic to a crawl, with one of the Trumpkin vehicles colliding with a passerby who was trying to get past the “madness.”

The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of voter intimidation. Indeed, it seems to illustrate graphically the kind of idiocy that surrounds the re-election candidacy of Donald J. Trump.

Hey, didn’t Hillary Clinton refer to these folks as “deplorables”?

So, the end of this hideous campaign is at hand. I wish I could be as magnanimous as my good friend. I just cannot.

If the results break the right way, I pledge to speak with good manners. I hope that’s enough.

national news

Impeachment: remember it?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want  to bring up an issue that is getting next to zero attention among the media as we hurtle toward this highly anticipated presidential election.

It is that Donald J. Trump is the first impeached president in U.S. history who is running for re-election.

Yep. The first one! Ever!

Remember that the House of Representatives impeached Trump on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump went to trial in the Senate and was acquitted.

Why and how? Because almost all of the Senate’s Republican majority — with one notable exception — gave Trump a pass on the abuse of power he exhibited when he solicited from Ukraine a political favor and then obstructed Congress’s efforts to get to the truth of what happened.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the lone Republican to vote to convict Trump on abuse of power.

So now Trump wants a second term in office after being impeached by the House. How should that play? How does he sell himself as deserving re-election even after the House impeached him?

He calls it all a hoax. Which is fine with the GOP bloc that stands with this guy.

Many of the rest of us don’t see it that way. I believe Trump should have been tossed out of office because he sought Ukrainian help in digging up dirt on Joe Biden. Not good, Mr. President. Plus, he ordered top aides to refuse to comply with congressional summons to appear before committees to talk openly about what they knew and when they knew it. Also not good, Mr. POTUS.

Here we are. Donald Trump wants another term in office after being impeached by the House because he broke the law.

Incredible.