Monthly Archives: December 2020

national news

By all means, let’s ‘turn the page’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden’s speech to the nation Monday was full of the expected rhetoric from the man who is about to assume the most exalted office in the land, if not the world.

One of his pronouncements was that it is “time to turn the page” from the past and to “unite” and “heal” a nation torn apart by political division and hatred.

Yeah. Do ya think? 

In reality it has been “time” to do all of that for years. I don’t dismiss the president-elect’s call. I do wonder whether it will resonate now any more than it has in the past as others across the land have urged an end to the bitter divide.

My hope springs eternal that it could mean more coming from the new president who is taking over from the most divisive, angry, ego-maniacal man ever to hold the office. I am going to lay the vast bulk of the blame for the division we are feeling at the feet of Donald J. Trump. No surprise there, I suppose.

Trump has erected a gigantic barrier between the new president and the people he will govern. To what end remains a mystery to me.

So, yes, it is time to “turn the page.” It’s time to turn many pages and slam the book shut on the era we are about to exit.

national news

Another political custom might face a stern test

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A lot of political eyes are set to turn toward someone who’s been stone-cold silent while Donald Trump has ranted about alleged “corruption” in the process that elected Joe Biden as president of the United States.

That someone is Vice President Mike Pence.

The Electoral College has voted to certify President-elect Biden’s election. Now we get to watch Congress ratify it on Jan. 6. There might be a Trumpster in the crowd of House members and senators who will object. The individual who could preside over it all is VP Pence. It’s been customary for the vice president to declare the election of the next president and vice president.

Donald Trump remains adamant that he — not Biden — won the election. What does the VP think? I am left to wonder whether Pence will follow Trump’s reprehensible behavior and refuse to show up.

I will harken back to 2001. We had just completed an election that ended up being decided in the Supreme Court, which voted 5 to 4 to end the counting of ballots in Florida. When the count ended, Texas Gov. George W. Bush led Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes, out of more than 5 million cast. Bush won Florida’s electoral votes, giving him 271 of them to be elected president. Was the then-VP angry? Uh, yeah. He was.

However, he conceded to the new president and when Congress convened to ratify the Electoral College tally, Vice President Gore was present to preside over the event and declared that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would take office as president and vice president, respectively.

That was the statesmanlike behavior we have come to expect in our nation’s top political leadership. We have seen nothing approaching it from Donald Trump. I hope with all sincerity that Mike Pence is a better man than the president.

national news

Way to go, Mitch … hah!

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The temptation surfaced but it was a fleeting moment.

I was tempted to offer a “better late than never” congratulatory statement to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for finally recognizing that his former colleague, Joe Biden, is the president-elect of the United States. McConnell this morning congratulated the president-elect and said he is looking forward to working with him on his agenda.

Then the temptation floated away.

I am left now to heap more shame on the Senate majority leader simply because he did something today he could have done — he should have done — weeks ago.

McConnell knew along with the rest of us that Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the democratic process were damaging to the republic, to the rule of law, to our very governmental foundation. Yet he remained silent … until the Electoral College cast its vote Monday to certify that President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris about to ascend to the pinnacle of power.

So, McConnell hid behind the formality of the vote until it was done and then he came forward this morning to state the obvious.

Sen. McConnell has demonstrated a disgraceful display of cowardice.

But it doesn’t matter what I think. The person whose opinion matters is President-elect Biden. Since he is a better man than many of us I am relatively certain Joe Biden is able to put the hard feelings he might harbor toward his former Senate pal aside and get to work on behalf of the nation he was elected to lead.

legal news

Barr resignation: perfect metaphor

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s resignation today splashed itself all over the news in a perfect metaphor for what the Donald Trump administration has become.

It symbolizes the chaos and confusion many of us saw coming.

Barr’s letter doesn’t mention the word “resignation.” Indeed, it speaks so glowingly about Donald Trump it leaves many of us wondering whether Trump himself actually wrote it. Would it surprise you if it comes out that Trump penned a resignation letter from the AG? Me neither.

Barr will leave office on Dec. 23. So, the Justice Department won’t have a permanent AG for the final month of the Trump administration. Nor will it have a permanent defense secretary, given that Trump fired Mark Esper a few weeks ago.

Think of this: the nation’s top legal eagle and its defense boss are gone in the waning weeks of an administration that burned through countless Cabinet secretaries and chief advisers and aides.

Trump is staggering out of office, giving way to President-elect Biden’s team that is forming daily.

My head is spinning.

local news, Sports news

Oh, and how about them Sod Poodles?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, let’s take a break from Donald Trump’s petty petulance at having lost an election.

I want to offer an atta boy to the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the defending Texas League champs and the minor league baseball team that plays hardball in the city I once called home.

Sod Poodles General Manager Tony Ensor, said this, “We are very pleased to announce that the Amarillo Sod Poodles organization has been formally invited by the Arizona Diamondbacks to become their new Double-A affiliate. Today’s announcement recognizes Amarillo and the Sod Poodles as being among the very best communities and franchises in Minor League Baseball. We are eager to review this affiliation opportunity with the Diamondbacks and our ownership group and look forward to discussing the exciting future ahead for baseball in Amarillo.”

There you go. The Sod Poodles have joined another Major League Baseball team in developing young talent that eventually hopes to end up in the Bigs. The Sod Poodles’ former parent club was the San Diego Padres. They have switched. To be candid, this one got past me. I must’ve been too preoccupied with other matters, such as the aforementioned Donald Trump’s bitching about losing an election to Joe Biden.

I’ll have to be content to cheer for the Sod Poodles  from afar, presuming they have a season this year; it didn’t happen for the Soddies, who wanted to defend their Texas League title won in the team’s first year of existence. We can thank the COVID pandemic for that.

Let’s hope they play ball this year … under the watchful eye of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

national news

Trump elevates our awareness

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let us be clear headed and focused now on what we must do as a nation.

We have elected a new president and vice president of the United States. Today we witnessed in real time as the Electoral College certified the victory earned by President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Normally, this day would have come and gone and no one would have noticed.

Except that this year, thanks to the shenanigans launched by the man Biden defeated — Donald J. Trump — this constitutional duty came into sharp focus. You know what? That’s a good thing! It is good that Americans who take this process for granted now understand with a good bit more clarity how the framers set up this democratic system of ours.

I detest the shenanigans that Trump has sought to pull off. There has been a significant upside, though, if you consider that Americans are paying a good bit more attention to the democratic process.

Let me be clear on this point, too: The Electoral College actually worked damn well, unlike what happened in 2016 when Trump won the electoral vote majority while losing the actual vote to Hillary Clinton. This year, the president-elect’s Electoral College majority and his actual vote majority seem to mirror each other. I won’t call his victory a “landslide,” even though he rang up the same electoral vote total that Trump did four years ago. His victory, though, is significant.

We watched it play out. We paid attention to it. Under normal conditions, we wouldn’t have celebrated this certification the way many of us are doing. There ain’t anything normal about Donald Trump, which he has demonstrated repeatedly since the moment he became a politician.

So you see? Trump’s antics have produced something constructive: an appreciation of our great democratic process!

national news

It’s over, Donald … Donald?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Cue the Fat Lady.

She’s the one who sings when the party — or in this case,  the fight to hold onto power — is over.

The Electoral College today cast more than enough votes to elect Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. As I write this brief post, Hawaii has yet to meet, but that state’s four electoral votes will go to the president-elect.

What now for the current president? He says he’ll keep mounting legal challenges. Well, there ain’t any left.

Oh, then there’s this: Attorney General William Barr, about five minutes after President-elect Biden secured enough votes to be elected by the Electoral College, turned his resignation. He’s quitting effective Dec. 23. I am sure he will have a wonderful, joyous Christmas.

I am going to listen for the faint tunes of the Fat Lady. She’s singing in anticipation of the next president taking office.

Oh, yes … she sounds so sweet to me.

national news

Petulance becomes even more petty

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The longer Donald Trump continues his futile, feckless and reckless attack on the American democratic process the more petty he becomes.

The president of the United States is shrinking before our eyes.

The Electoral College voted today and certified Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the 46th president of the United States. Trump, meanwhile, is tweeting messages about how he has just begun to fight.

For what? For an office that is now officially out of reach?

The U.S. Constitution lays it out there. It is spelled out in the written word. The Electoral College determines who sits in president’s office. It won’t be Donald Trump after Jan. 20.

So the defeated president might continue to bluster and blather about alleged election thievery. It didn’t happen. Deep down in his gut Trump knows it, too.

It’s the  uncertainty of what might await him once he no longer is shielded by the trappings of immense power that seems to be driving this petty petulance.

It’s over, Mr. POTUS. Pack your bags and hit the road … for keeps.

national news

Biden transition needs to function on all cylinders

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(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, to be a fly on whatever walls surrounding the meetings that President-elect Biden is conducting as he prepares to become the next president.

The transition has begun officially. It was late getting started. Donald Trump, who lost the election to Joe Biden, dug in for too long after we learned that we had a new president waiting in the wings.

Then came the order from the General Services Administration, the agency that runs the transition: Start turning the wheels, the GSA said … undoubtedly on orders from Donald Trump.

I am heartened somewhat — but not totally — by the knowledge that President-elect Biden is a man of the Senate, that he knows how government works, that he has an enormous network of contacts throughout the legislative and executive branches of government.

Biden comes to the presidency being able to speak fluently in the language that bureaucrats speak to each other. There appears to be little on-the-job training for the new president. He served 36 years in the Senate, eight as vice president. He knows the ropes.

Contrast that with the absence of any exposure to government that Donald Trump brought to the job he inherited when he was elected in 2016. It showed from the get-go.

I do not expect the new president to make the kind of monumental hiring mistakes that Trump made. I could be wrong, of course. Indeed, I am wrong way more than I am right.

On this matter … I’ll stick with my assessment of the new president.

national news

These lawmakers need to be sanctioned

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This isn’t likely to happen, but it damn near should happen.

The 126 Republicans who joined a hideous lawsuit that sought to throw out the votes of millions of Americans in this year’s presidential election should be sanctioned.

A censure? Impeachment? A public scolding?

They signed a legal brief that joined a suit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who said the votes in four states that went for Joe Biden were cast illegally. He said the states changed their election rules in violation of the Constitution.

Paxton, a Republican (of course!) got 16 other state attorneys general to join the suit. Then came the brief signed by the members of Congress. Twelve of them are from Texas.

Congressional Democrats quite naturally are outraged that these individuals would seek to subvert the Constitution. That they would seek to undermine the electoral process. That they would deliberately and with malice seek to violate their oaths of office.

The Supreme Court threw out Paxton’s lawsuit. It was silent on the action of the members of Congress who agreed with the embattled AG’s complaint. I understand SCOTUS’s silence on that matter.

However, many of us out here in Flyover Country won’t remain silent. I certainly won’t.

These individuals — including the House’s top two leading GOP members, minority leader Kevin McCarthy and minority whip Steve Scalise — have richly earned whatever sanction that is available to the congressional leadership that can punish them.

They no longer represent the Republican Party. They are now members of the Donald Trump Party, even though they took an oath to defend the nation … not suck up to a president.

They sicken me.