Monthly Archives: November 2020

medical news

Why do GOP pols keep getting sick from COVID?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

OK, don’t hate me because I am going to ask this question, given that I recently called for an end to the politicization of the COVID pandemic.

I gotta ask: Why are Republican politicians and political operatives — not to mention members of Donald Trump’s family — keep getting infected by the virus? Why aren’t more, um, Democratic pols and key aides to President-elect Biden getting the disease?

Oh, I think I know. It’s because GOP pols and key aides keep dismissing the measures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keep urging us to take to avoid getting sick; Democrats, meanwhile, are taking these measures seriously.

Could that be it? Oh, sure it is!

Is there a lesson to learn here? You bet there is.

national news

JFK’s final words ring so true

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Kennedy was scheduled to deliver these words 57 years ago this evening.

A gunman changed the course of history in front of the Texas School Book Depository building in downtown Dallas earlier that day.

The words that President Kennedy wanted to speak at the Trade Mart in Dallas that evening have an astonishing ring to them today, given the post-election turmoil the nation is enduring.

I encourage you to read them. Study them. Ponder their significance. Then ask yourself: Is this the best we can do so many decades later?

national news

GOP wising up to the obvious: Biden is the president-elect

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Psst. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got a secret I want to share.

Congressional Republicans are finally — finally! — wising up to what we’ve known since, oh, Nov. 3 … which is that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the race for president.

The GOP caucus is beginning to sound off, albeit a bit mutedly, that Trump needs to back off his reprehensible attempt to overturn the election results.

President-elect Biden has been proceeding as best he can toward forming a government that will take over on Jan. 20. He has gotten zero help from Trump’s team. Still, the Biden team — led by newly named chief of staff Ronald Klain — is lining up Cabinet and senior staff appointees, some of whom the POTUS-elect plans to announce on Tuesday.

Now comes word that some Republican senators and House members are telling their staffs to start working with the president-elect’s team.

Newsweek, for instance, reports: Sen. Kevin Kramer, a North Dakota Republican, said that he has instructed his staff to cooperate with any outreach from President-elect Biden’s transition team while asserting that it was “past time” for President Donald Trump to do the same.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a longtime Trump supporter, said this morning that Trump’s refusal to help Biden’s effort to form a government is “undemocratic” and is a “national embarrassment.” Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican and another senatorial Trumpkin, has said the same thing.  Same for Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee in 2012.

It might be said that it’s a bit “too little and too late” for the GOP to start coming around. I won’t go there. I welcome the Republican pressure. Will it persuade Donald Trump to give up his fight to undermine our democratic process? Will it stem the embarrassment he is bringing to us from around the world? Will it cause Trump to stop endangering the safety and well-being of Americans?

Time will have to reveal all of that. For the time being, I am going to cling to a glimmer of hope that the GOP uprising will pay off.

national news

Hurry up, 2021

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I know for a hard-and-fast fact that I am far from alone in wishing this, but I’ll put it out there anyway.

The year 2020 cannot disappear fast enough!

This has been arguably the most miserable year in many people’s memory. We’ve had the pandemic. It has killed more than 250,000 Americans. It has struck friends of my wife and me. It has caused untold misery to families and to entire communities.

And yes, it has also has befallen our great nation. Our economy has collapsed. Our hospital ERs are filled beyond capacity. Our first responders are despondent as they struggle against an enemy that takes no prisoners.

The 2020 presidential election campaign unfolded ominously. Donald Trump began savaging everyone in sight. Meanwhile, he ignored the pandemic and ultimately paid the political price by losing his bid for re-election. So, there’s justice to be cherished by that result.

Still, the year has been a major-league downer. I want it to end.

Mom used to advise me against wishing my life away. Sorry, Mom, but I cannot help myself. If she were here to suffer through this year she likely would be among those of us who are wishing our life away by wanting the new year to arrive as soon as possible.

The year that’s about to pass into history has been a serious downer.

national news

The impossible is happening

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I didn’t think it was humanly possible, but something strange is happening in real time, right here and now.

Donald John Trump is making me even more anxious than ever for him to leave the White House, hitting the road for Mar-a-Lago, or Bedminster or wherever. Yes, I was anxious for him to leave the moment President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

But my goodness! Trump’s behavior, his betrayal of the oath he took to defend the Constitution, his denigrating of the democratic process has forced me into a realm of anxiousness I didn’t know I possessed.

But I do. I possess it to the extent that I am wishing he simply would vacate my house far sooner than he needs to vacate it. By that I refer to Jan. 20, the date Joe Biden becomes the next president.

Just go, Mr. POTUS. Get the hell out of there! You can keep your presidential powers until the date of the new president’s swearing-in. Just don’t use them foolishly or dangerously.

I wouldn’t object one little bit to Twitter disconnecting Trump’s account. The social medium already has flagged damn near everything that Trump launches into cyberspace as being untruthful. Why not, then, just pull the plug on this clown?

Donald Trump just keeps making matters worse for him. What’s more — and this infinitely more damaging — he is making it worse for the country.

Just go away. Vanish. I want you out of my sight.

national news

Giving thanks for voters’ wisdom

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me a brief moment to mix a bit of politics with the holiday week we’re going to celebrate.

I am giving thanks for the wisdom voters exhibited on Nov. 3 by tossing Donald John Trump out of the White House.

I remained cautiously optimistic that the outcome would turn out as it did, with Joe Biden assuming the title of president-elect. Yes, I had concern that Trump might pull a Houdini-like escape performance by repeating the stunning upset he scored in 2016 to become president.

When the votes came in and were tabulated, my concern was replaced by the satisfaction in realizing that most American voters were able to rectify the mistake that occurred four years ago.

They’re still counting ballots around the country. I look at the running totals almost daily and am heartened by the realization that more than 51 percent of Americans endorsed Joe Biden’s pledge to “restore our nation’s soul.” It needs restoration, to be sure.

I am going to place my faith in the deeds of the new president, that he will be able to bridge the chasm that divides us.

We’re going to give thanks for a lot of things this week. We shall give thanks for living in this great nation, for the liberty granted to us as Americans. We will give thanks for our families and the love that surrounds us and that we give in return.

I also am going to give thanks for the spirit of political redemption that arose on Election Day.

If this post offends you because it mixes partisan politics with the joy of a happy holiday, well … too bad. It’s what I am feeling in my heart this glorious morning.

Have a wonderful day.

national news

Anxious for a new president

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You know by now I have refrained from typing the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name.

Trump is too fundamentally unfit for the office for me to acknowledge that he has earned the title. So I have declined to refer to him directly with the title he acquired upon election four years ago as president of the United States.

Accordingly, I am looking forward to referring to the new president in that fashion. I am going to take a certain measure of delight in typing the words “President Biden” as he assumes the office to which he was elected.

This sounds petty, I am sure, to many of those of you who voted for Trump. You’re entitled to feel that way. As I am entitled to feel the way I do about the outgoing president.

This blog consists mainly discussion about politics and policy. I am keenly aware that many policy decisions come from the politicians who haven’t earned my support at the ballot box. They serve in state and local offices in Texas. However, none of them is as unfit for the offices they occupy as Donald Trump. Therefore, I am not at all reluctant to refer, say, to Gov. Greg Abbott, or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, or U.S. Rep. Van Taylor … or even Vice President Mike Pence.

Donald J. Trump? He occupies a special place of derision for me. I won’t go there. Not ever.

With that I await the inauguration of our next commander in chief, President Joe Biden. 

I just am going to ask him one thing: Do not do something so egregious that I will be forced to reconsider my intent to extend you the courtesy of referring to you by the exalted title you have earned.

national news

Biden does his due diligence

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden’s transition — such as it is to date — to the nation’s highest office is going to include a steady, learned search for individuals who will comprise the executive branch of the federal government.

I think it’s fair to suggest that Biden’s many years of government and public policy experience is going to serve him well as he seeks to fill the top Cabinet and staff positions. It’s also fair to compare his search with what confronted his predecessor as he began his own quest to fill those posts.

Donald Trump didn’t have any of the experience that Biden brings to the presidency. He was steeped in a checkered business career. It showed.

He selected a secretary of state who came from the fossil fuel industry. Rex Tillerson fell out of favor when he referred to Trump as a “fu**ing moron.” Trump has gone through four national security advisers. Three chiefs of staff. Trump installed his daughter as a senior adviser and his son-in-law as chief Middle East negotiator. Many of his campaign advisers and aides have been indicted for criminal activity and served time for it.

To be sure, he did hire some top-flight folks. James Mattis as defense secretary comes to mind. Mattis, though, got canned because he, um, disagreed with Trump’s ignorance about his role as commander in chief.

Trump has failed to fill many posts vacated by resignation or dismissal.

I do not expect any of this to occur in a Biden administration. The new president served eight years as vice president and 36 years as a U.S. senator. He chaired the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. The man knows government. My goodness, he has lived and breathed government for nearly a half-century.

The United States conducted something of an experiment when it elected Donald Trump to its highest political office. The experiment, in my view, failed. Trump didn’t know how to govern. He never thought to learn anything about the complexities of running the nation’s executive government branch.

We have turned now to someone with a wealth of knowledge about that government. He is in the process of looking high low, far and wide for competent individuals who I am going to presume will put the nation’s needs ahead of their own or those of the president.

I am going to maintain my confidence in President-elect Biden’s knowledge and understanding of our complex federal government.

Moreover, I am delighted to say goodbye to the chaos and confusion we have witnessed for the past four years.

national news

Shame on GOP enablers

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I feel like a pebble covered in an avalanche of boulders.

I live in Princeton, Texas, in Collin County, which is considered a Republican stronghold. I didn’t vote this month for Donald Trump. I supported the candidacy of Joe Biden and continue to support his ascendance to the presidency of the United States.

However, given that I live in this GOP ocean, I am silenced a bit by the complicity of GOP political leaders who are engaging in one of the most shameful acts of betrayal I have ever witnessed.

I want to tell my neighbors that their politicians are enabling Trump to undermine our sacred democratic process by their refusal to even recognize Biden as the nation’s next president. I don’t dare tell them what I believe.

As reprehensible as Trump’s conduct has been since President-elect Biden was declared the winner of the election, the conduct of GOP political leaders — especially those in Texas — is even worse. They are contributing, enabling Trump to continue his charade. He tells the Big Lie that the election was “rigged.” GOP leaders in Texas and elsewhere are silent. Their silence implies agreement, complicity in this monstrous demonstration of presidential petulance.

Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are silent. My congressman, Van Taylor? Not a sound. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has offered a reward for anyone who can provide proof of election fraud in Texas. Bold stuff, Dan, given that no one will produce anything of the sort.

They won’t even refer to Biden as president-elect.

This is beyond ridiculous. It is dangerous. It betrays the Constitution they all swore to protect and defend. Their silence gives Trump license to sow seeds of doubt into our precious democratic process.

Previous presidents of both parties have lost re-election bids. They have accepted the results of the voters. They have done so with class and grace. This one, Donald Trump, doesn’t exhibit any of his predecessors’ decorum. Worse than that, neither do the mindless minions who continue to kowtow to this man’s idiotic notion that he won re-election “by a landslide.”

They should be shamed for the rest of their political careers.

national news

Twitter set to make a move

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Twitter has made it official.

Effective on Jan. 20, Twitter is going to switch its @POTUS address from Donald Trump to the new president, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Does this diminish Donald Trump’s Twitter presence? Oh, probably not. The switch does signal to me that if a leading social medium recognizes Joe Biden as the next president, then it must be true!

Now, if only Donald Trump and his GOP toadies/suck ups/sycophants would follow suit.