Monthly Archives: November 2020

national news

Trump poses existential threat to our security

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Forgive me for thrashing that so-called “dead horse,” but Donald Trump’s threat to our national security is being played out in real time during this transition to the Joe Biden administration.

Trump’s refusal to (a) acknowledge that he lost the election and (b) refuse to grant President-elect Biden’s team with intelligence briefings poses a potentially serious and dire threat to our national security.

Now we hear from a growing list of Republican politicians and former Trump aides clamoring for Trump to do the right thing. That would be to acknowledge the obvious, that Biden won the election and to start briefing Biden’s national security team on the key issues that threaten our beloved nation.

How does a president who ran for office on the pledge to “put America first” actually do this to a nation he says he loves?

Oh, I know the answer. It’s because this president loves the nation far less than he loves himself. He cherishes his own ego more than anything — or anyone — else on Earth. Of that I am absolutely convinced. That appears to be the driving force behind Trump’s gambit to deny his presidential successor access to the knowledge that all presidents traditionally have handed over to those who succeed them in office.

President Obama did so when he turned the office over to Trump in 2017. President Bush did the same thing for President-elect Obama in 2009. On and on it has gone.

Until now. That means that the president of the United States, the guy who pledged to protect Americans, has become our greatest threat.

national news

How would Trump cope with being stiffed by his predecessor?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that we all are witnessing in real time why prior government experience matters during a presidential transition.

President-elect Joe Biden is assembling a government without an ounce of help from the man he defeated, Donald J. Trump. Has that stymied Biden’s effort to form a team he wants to take off from a dead stop when he assumes the office on Jan. 20? Hah! Not even …

I am wondering out loud how Donald Trump’s team would have fared had President Obama had sought to stiff the new president’s transition effort. Trump had zero government or public service experience when he won the 2016 election. He brought not a hint of understanding of politics and public policy when he took on the most powerful public office on Earth. Would he have proceeded the way Biden and his team have done? Hardly.

Joe Biden’s vast government experience, including his vast network of contacts, sources, friends, allies, partners gives him a huge advantage as he seeks to craft a government team.

Yes, folks, we are watching in real time the value that prior government and public service experience brings to an endeavor as huge as the one that Biden is undertaking.

I don’t expect it to go seamlessly without any help or assistance from the outgoing president’s team. Indeed, there’s still time for Donald Trump to snap to the reality that reportedly is dawning on his closest advisers … which is that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

And that it is time for the outgoing president to make way for the new team.

national news

Don’t ditch Electoral College

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Call me a fuddy-duddy if you wish, or old-fashioned, or even a “strict constitutional constructionist.”

I am not going to climb aboard theĀ  vessel that seeks to throw out the Electoral College.

You see, I happen to like the way we elect presidents. It’s the method concocted by the nation’s founders. Their intent was to create a more equitable distribution among the states. They intended to give more sparsely populated states a greater voice in selecting the president.

Has it worked perfectly? Well, no. It hasn’t. However, name any government policy that works perfectly and I’ll be willing to consider buying that bridge you’re offering to sell me.

I traveled to Greece in November 2000. You’ll recall how that election was hung up in the courts for weeks after Election Day. The Supreme Court ended up settling it with a 5-4 vote. Al Gore had more actual votes than George W. Bush, but Bush became president.

I had the challenge in 2000 of trying to explain to my Greek friends — most of whom are highly sophisticated government-watchers — how someone can collect more votes than the other guy but lose the election. I sought to explain as best I could the founders’ vision of what the Electoral College was intended to do. I think I made my point then.

Still, the debate rages on, even after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in both the actual vote and the Electoral College.

OK, the system ain’t perfect. In 2016, Hillary Clinton collected nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, but she lost. We have the Bush-Gore election of 2000. Grover Cleveland outpolled Benjamin Harrison, but lost the 1888 election. Samuel Tilden lost the presidency in 1876 to Rutherford B. Hayes in the same fashion.

By and large, though, the system works as the founders intended.

Consider that Nevada became a battleground this time around; it was just as critical to Biden winning as, say, Pennsylvania.

I am just not ready to toss the Electoral College system on its ear because of an occasional hiccup.

national news

Democracy is stronger than COVID

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to declare victory on behalf of our democratic government.

No, it has nothing to do with who won the presidential election. It has everything to do with the number of American citizens who voted while the nation we love in the grip of a killer pandemic.

The Joe Biden-Donald Trump election has drawn nearly 154 million Americans to vote for president. The previous high occurred four years ago when the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton contest attracted more than 136 million total ballots. Oh, and get a load of this: This year’s election tally is going to grow as more ballots are counted each day.

This is worth saluting because we often gripe about voters who become lazy, or disinterested, or disengaged from the political process. Not this year, man!

Politicians mostly of the Democratic persuasion called on voters to cast their ballots. Vote by mail if you and you are concerned about exposure to the COVID virus, they said. Vote early, they implored us, to ensure your votes are counted.

It appears that the public heard the calls to vote. They responded with a turnout that no doubt will make history.

education news

School board betrays its constituents

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A North Texas public school board of trustees that is charged with setting policy for educating public school students has just failed an exam that truly doesn’t pass the so-called “smell test.”

The Lancaster Independent School District board is offering an abject lesson on how not to conduct public business. Other local governing boards need to listen up and pay close attention.

The Lancaster ISD board offered Superintendent Elijah Granger a new five-year contract worth $1.6 million and then bought him out five days later. That’s not the worst of it.

Oh, no. The worst is that the board, which bought him out with a 4-3 vote, isn’t disclosing the details of the maneuver. The three trustees don’t know the details. Nor does the public. No one knows how much money the public school district is shelling out to buy Granger’s contract.

I emphasize the word “public” because the public deserves to know the details, not to mention the three board members who dissented from the buyout vote.

As the Dallas Morning News said in an editorial published Wednesday, “There is no other way to look at this than a betrayal of parents, taxpayers and the trustees who were shut out from access to relevant information.”

One of the dissenting trustees, Marion Hamilton, sought to see the separation agreement, but was denied. That is outrageous!

School board members have declined to discuss the details of the buyout. There hasn’t been an explanation of why they voted essentially to fire the superintendent … not to mention explain why it would buy him out so soon after agreeing to the expensive contract. What in the world did he do from the contract signing and the separation? The public needs to know the details.

There’s a serious lesson to be learned here. I would hope all school districts, city councils or other governing bodies entrusted with the power to hire and fire government administrators would take notice of the clusterfu** being played out in Lancaster, Texas.

This ain’t good, folks. You have failed a key test of leadership … and to think you still set policy that establishes the education of public school students.

Shameful.

medical news

We’re still talking about COVID, Mr. POTUS

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I feel the need to remind you, Mr. President, of something you said on Oct. 24, about two weeks before you got thumped in your re-election bid.

You said everyone talks about “COVID, COVID, COVID,” and that by Nov. 4, “no one will be talking about” the disease that continues to infect and kill Americans.

OK, Mr. President. It’s now Nov. 13 and we’re still talking about COVID. Why? Because your administration’s shameful inaction on combating the killer virus has resulted in yet another ghastly and deadly spike in infection and death.

Haven’t you read the papers, Mr. President? We’re breaking records every day! For God’s sake, dude, the infection you kept telling us is “under control” is anything but under control. It is stampeding through our population like a herd of bison.

Does it fail to register with you, Mr. President, that your staff has been infected? Or that members of your Secret Service detail have come down with the disease? Or that you, your wife and your youngest son all were infected by the disease?

We’re still talking about the disease, Mr. POTUS! We’re going to keep talking about the disease for far longer than any of us want to talk about it.

This ain’t a hoax, Mr. President. It’s real. It is deadly … and you, sir, are responsible for continuing misery.

Donald Trump

Is reality setting in on Donald Trump?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, or maybe it’s real.

I could not escape the feeling today as I watched Donald J. Trump make his first public comments since losing the presidential election that reality is finally sinking in.

Which is that he lost the election and that Joseph R. Biden is going to takeĀ  over on Jan. 20 as the nation’s 46th president.

It’s only a gut feeling and, no, it has not a single thing to do with my trick knee. I was just struck by the notion listening to the subdued Trump discussing the Operation Warp Speed program his administration initiated to search for a COVID-19 vaccine that reality is staring him in the face.

Oh, he managed to take a few swipes here and there, at Pfizer for reportedly saying it didn’t receive any government assistance for the vaccine it is developing. I didn’t hear it but I understand he had anĀ  unkind word for the president-elect.

However, by and large I detected a more somber tone from Donald Trump than I have been reading as he has unleashed the Twitter barrage since the election results produced a definitive answer to the future of the Trump presidency … which is that it is toast.

There also is news that he is withdrawing his lawsuit filed in Arizona against the state’s election officials for allegedly allowing illegal voters to cast ballots for President-elect Biden.

Yep, the end is near for the Trump presidency. I will resist feeling any sympathy for the losing candidate. He hasn’t earned a bit of it.

All I am feeling at this moment — right this minute — is happiness that the Trump cult of personality is on its way out of my White House.

State news

Lt. Gov. Patrick offers election fraud ‘bounty’ … weird!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick needs to pipe down and concentrate on running the Texas Senate, which is set to convene its regular legislative session in January.

The Houston blowhard is offering a $1 million reward — or “bounty,” if you’ll excuse the comparison — to “incentivize” the search for any evidence of voter fraud in the presidential election.

Let’s be clear. There is no evidence, none, zero of widespread election fraud. Every state and every county in the nation worked diligently to protect the integrity of the electoral system, which chose Joe Biden as president of the United States in a free and fair election.

Patrick, though, is among a horde of Texas Republican politicians who won’t accept the obvious: that Biden is the new president and that their guy, Donald Trump, got thumped at the polls.

According to the Texas Tribune: Patrick said that anyone who provides information that leads to a conviction will receive at least $25,000. The money will come from Patrickā€™s campaign fund, according to spokesperson Sherry Sylvester.

So, I guess Patrick believes that voter fraud occurred. Hey, here’s a thought: If he’s so sure of it, he ought to produce evidence himself. Has he done so? Oh, heavens no!

Instead, he’s looking for saps who can chase phony leads down blind alleys, keeping a bogus issue at the front of the public’s attention for as long as possible.

Get to work on your real job, Dan … and stay the hell out of the way of President-elect Joe Biden’s task of preparing for the toughest job on Earth.

national news

Biden setting cooler, calmer tone

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A nation that has endured one of the most contentious, nastiest and falsehood-filled presidential campaigns in history is now being treated to a transition that occurs with one of the principals doing what he must do.

The other one is stonewalling. Why? Because he is alleging voter fraud that likely doesn’t exist.

President-elect Joe Biden has selected his White House chief of staff. Ron Klain is a longtime Biden confidant with vast experience in government operations. Klain now becomes the point man who will guide the president-elect to selecting his Cabinet and his key White House aides and advisers.

The other guy is the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who lost his bid for re-election by a significant and growing margin. Trump is going out with the same raucousness he exhibited when he took office four years ago.

Yes, Trump has been quiet in terms of his relentless tweeting habit. His stonewalling on the transition, though, puts the nation in potential national security peril. Donald Trump’s team won’t share intelligence briefings with the new president’s team, disallowing them access to information it will need as it prepares to plot strategies for guarding against potential threats from hostile nations.

So we’re left with a president-elect who is proceeding with a transition the way he normally would do it with a predecessor who is willing to cooperate fully.

To be candid, the manner that President-elect Joe Biden is employing to take office is far more preferable than the manner that Donald Trump is using to surrender it.

I believe we are witnessing in real time the differences in the way these men govern.

national news

Remain silent, Mr. POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If you put your ear to the ground and demand complete silence around you, then you’re likely to hear something quite pleasant.

That would be the absence of any yammering from the White House.

You see, Donald John Trump is a lame-duck president who has remained quiet as the world watches President-elect Joseph Biden Jr. begin preparing for the biggest job on Earth.

Why is this worth mentioning? Because I am sick, tired and disgusted beyond measure with the incessant bitching, griping and insult from Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

I grew weary early on with his daily appearances in the White House press room in which he would misstate the pandemic crisis that continues to kill Americans every single day.

He’s not doing that these days. Trump is busying himself with lawsuits that alleged “widespread voter fraud” in states he lost to Biden. The litigation will go nowhere. Then the 45th president will be onĀ  his way back to Mar-a-Lago, turning the White House over to No. 46, who can begin to repair the damage that Trump has brought to the presidency.

For now I intend to relish the silence from Donald Trump.