Monthly Archives: December 2020

political news, State news

No straight-ticket voting this year … woo hoo!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here is a story that went virtually unreported in the just-completed 2020 presidential election.

It occurred in Texas and it is this: Texans just voted in their first presidential election without having the option of punching a straight-ticket spot on the ballot.

Yep, for the first time, Texans had go down the ballot and vote race by race for the candidates of their choice. Count me as one happy Texas voter to salute the wisdom of the Texas Legislature for scrapping the straight-ticket option.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law in 2017.

Straight-ticket voting has bugged me beyond reason ever since we moved to Texas in 1984. And the truth is that my dislike of this practice has nothing to do with the fact that Republicans have been the primary beneficiary of this lazy-voter style of ballot-casting. I just want to lay that out there for all to see.

Democrats used to benefit from this practice before they surrendered power to Republicans in the late 1970s and 1980s.

It has bothered me that Texans could walk into their polling booth, hit a single “all-Republican” or “all-Democrat” spot on their ballot. Then they’re done. They exit the polling place feeling smug and proud that they did their civic duty.

But … did they?

I long have argued that if people want to vote for candidates of a single party they should be required to look along the entire ballot and mark the spot next to their candidates’ names. Voters should be able to take a few extra minutes to ponder the decision they make.

I have been yammering about Donald Trump’s petulance over the result of the presidential election. I am glad to say something good about how Texas conducted its election, which was to get rid of straight-ticket voting.

national news

Democracy can withstand this GOP assault

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to stand strong and foursquare in representative democracy’s corner as our system of government faces down this frontal assault by the Republican Party.

Donald Trump has lost a presidential election. He continues to challenge the free and fair results. He is losing court battle after court battle. Judges are scorning his legal team’s so-called logic. Yet he persists.

I submit that representative democracy is suffering some serious collateral damage in this political fire fight. The good news, though, is that I also believe our system of government will survive.

President-elect Joe Biden will take office in about six weeks. Donald Trump will be gone from the center of the U.S. political universe. President Biden will commence the task of “restoring our national soul.”

He will have to apply proverbial bandages to representative democracy as well. Donald Trump’s assault on our system of government is putting it to an unprecedented test. I remain faithful to the notion that our system that has been tried over many years by other virulent forces will be strong enough to withstand the damage that Donald Trump is inflicting on it.

The legendary journalist Carl Bernstein calls Trump’s refusal to accept Biden’s victory as more dangerous than President Nixon’s attempt to cover up the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. Bernstein calls Trump the most “subversive” individual ever elected to the presidency. He seeks to subvert our democratic principles to his ego, to his quest for authoritarian power and for his relentless challenge to the integrity of our voting system, which is the bedrock of our government.

No man, though, is capable of bringing down out representative democracy. It will survive this assault. Indeed, it could emerge even stronger than ever.

My eternal optimism will not allow me to consign our system to the scrap heap because a demented politician seeks to destroy it.

national news, political news

Cowards occupy Capitol Hill offices

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am sickened to the maximum degree by the cowardice I am witnessing among Republicans who occupy most of the U.S. Senate seats and a healthy minority of those in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Americans have just elected Joseph R. Biden Jr. as their president, and yet congressional Republicans by and large refuse to even refer to the president-elect by the title he earned in a free and fair election.

What the hell is going on here?

The Senate’s chief coward, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has a longstanding professional and political relationship with the president-elect. Yet he remains silent on the issue of whether he won the election. McConnell cowers in the face of the Trumpkin Corps of zealots in Kentucky who threaten him with payback if he does what he should have done long ago, which is recognize President-elect Biden as the winner … and then say so out loud in public!

McConnell is just one, of course.

Still, we are witnessing a shameful and reprehensible dereliction of duty among our congressional leadership to do the right thing, which would be to follow our two-century-old tradition of honoring the results of an election. They are dishonoring that democratic process and dishonoring the government they all took an oath to defend and protect.

They sicken me to my core.

I would say we should vote them out of office. Except that too damn many of them were just returned to office in an election we just completed. I am left, therefore, to just vent on this blog … which I will continue to do until I start seeing some courage emerging from the herd of Capitol Hill cowards.

military news

He joined the fight immediately

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to commemorate today by remembering the impact an event that occurred 79 years ago had on my family.

You know already that my father, Peter John Kanelis, is my favorite veteran. Some of you might even recall that I have written on this blog about how Dad answered the call to fight for his country on Dec. 7, 1941. I will recap here briefly.

Dad was the oldest of seven siblings living in Portland, Ore., when the Japanese attacked our naval forces in Hawaii. Two of his siblings are still living. One of them is Dad’s youngest brother, who a year ago told me of how Dad — who was listening on the radio to the horrible events of that day — left the house and went downtown to enlist in the Navy. He joined the fight that very day.

He wouldn’t suit up for a few more weeks. In early February, Dad ventured to San Diego, Calif., for his basic training. He ended up in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations where he fought the Nazis and the Italians who joined their Japanese allies in declaring war on the United States.

I want to mention this once again because Dad’s bravery and — in the words of President Roosevelt — his “righteous anger” symbolized a nation that would fight the tyrants to the bitter end.

Dad became one of 16 million Americans to join that fight. They became what we now refer to as “The Greatest Generation.” They’re all very old now. Fewer than 500,000 of them remain among us.

They were called to arms because an enemy state miscalculated the resolve of what had been referred to in real time as a “sleeping giant.”

I am proud to be the son of one of those gallant Americans who envisioned immediately his need to take up arms against tyranny and fight for the nation he loved.

That love of country is part of Dad’s enduring legacy.

religious news

Evangelical leaders: lukewarm to man of faith

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A story I read in the newspaper this morning offered a curiously ironic tale of how a key political demographic group is awaiting the arrival of a new president of the United States.

The evangelical Christian movement — with leaders such as Dallas preacher Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Tony Perkins — is giving Joe Biden a wait-and-see welcome as he prepares to become president of the United States.

The irony? Joe Biden is a man of deep and abiding faith in God and in Jesus Christ. The man he is replacing as president of the United States has what one could say generously has a flimsy relationship with Scripture. Yet the evangelical movement clung furiously to the notion of Donald Trump getting re-elected to a second term.

Why the love affair with The Donald? It’s purely political. He appointed judges who adhered to evangelicals’ world view. They are anti-choice on abortion; they favor prayer in public schools; they rule consistently against gay Americans’ rights. What does Donald Trump think about all of that? No one can say with any degree of certainty that he endorses any of it. He just makes the correct political appointments.

They’re getting now a man who attends church daily. He prays to God. His faith has held him up as he has battled unspeakable personal tragedy — such as burying his wife and infant daughter and then his grown son many years later.

President-elect Biden’s personal faith journey isn’t enough to persuade many faith leaders to back him with anything approaching the zeal they demonstrated for a guy who has only a passing acquaintance with faith and whose personal behavior betrays virtually every tenet found in both the Old and New testaments of the Good Book.

The headline in today’s Dallas Morning News declared that the “religious right” is “wary of Biden but not hostile.”

The irony of the evangelicals’ tepid response to the election of a man of faith, though, still screams loudly at me.

national news

Trump exit playing true to form

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I suppose you could say that Donald Trump’s tortured exit from the political stage is what many of us thought might occur.

No, I am not saying folks would have predicted each excruciating step by step. However, Trump’s non-political background never prepared him for the kind of defeat he would suffer on Election Day 2020 and he was ill-prepared to accept the fate that others had handed him.

He came of age and entered the business world on the back of a multimillion-dollar stake his rich father bequeathed him. He formed his own company. Trump called his own shots. He took no guff from those who worked for him. He sought no favor from those with whom he worked. Nor did Trump — by his own admission — seek forgiveness for any mistakes he made along the way.

His entire adult life was geared toward a single goal: self enrichment and aggrandizement. Trump’s ego would not allow him to think of others, nor to invest any of the wealth he acquired in the communities that gave it to him.

Then, after lying his way to fame and fortune, he decided to seek the first and only public office ever in his life: the presidency. Wouldn’t you know it? The reality TV celebrity won!

Now he’s been tossed out. The public for whom he worked and to whom he was responsible has given him the heave-ho. Hit the road, Donald, and don’t let the door hit you in your ample a** on the way out of the White House.

Donald Trump’s petulance has been mind-blowing. The dangerous game of denigration is frightening in the extreme as he rants and riffs on alleged corruption in an electoral system he took an oath to defend and protect has been astonishing in the extreme.

Does any of this, at its deepest level, surprise anyone? If it does, it certainly shouldn’t be a surprise.

He soon will be replaced by a man who has spent his adult life in public service. Joe Biden isn’t the perfect man to be elected president. However, the president-elect — given what we have endured for the past four years — is damn close to the ideal antidote to the selfishness, the narcissism, the corruption and the grifting we have seen from Donald Trump and those closest to him.

Dare I say, too: Some of us saw it — or something like it — coming a long time ago.

national news

Rudy tests positive for COVID … why don’t I feel badly?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The man once known as America’s Mayor but who has become a laughingstock lawyer as Donald Trump concocts wild theories about election fraud has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

I am ashamed to admit this: Why don’t I feel badly that Rudy Giuliani has become infected? I suppose at one level I don’t want him to get deathly ill and suffer in agony. However, the man who stood tall in the wake of 9/11 as mayor of New York has devolved into a cartoon character, a buffoon, a Bozo the Clown as he mounts ridiculous arguments that seek to persuade us that voter fraud propelled Joe Biden to the presidency over Donald Trump.

The clown show goes on. Only 40-something days to go.

national news

Biden feeling the heat

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden is getting pulled in multiple directions by multiple political interests.

It gives me cause for concern.

Joe Biden is a center-left Democrat. I believe that’s how he portrayed himself. He moderates his views on occasion, seeking compromise when possible with politicians with differing views. So, when I hear that progressives want a more progressive Cabinet than what they’re getting to date, I am left to wonder: What do they expect from a man who campaigned as a moderate?

The president-elect is getting pressure from African-American interests, from Latinos, from Asian-Americans. They, too, want more people who look like them at the highest levels of government.

I’ve declared already that I am a “good government progressive.” One of the ways I determine “good government” is whether we are being served by the best possible individuals. Does their ethnic or  racial background rise to the level of critical importance? Well, I guess not. Then again, I am a white male, grandson of immigrants. I don’t fit into any particular racial or ethnic minority … unless you include Greeks in that category.

The president-elect has pledged to craft a government team that resembles the country he was elected to govern. I believe so far he is on the way to keeping that pledge. He has a long way to go. I hope he can resist the temptation to buckle under to every ethnic, racial or socio-economic group that tugs at him.

I am keeping faith with the promise he brings to repair the damage done by his predecessor.

national news

Trump keeps making news

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Just to be clear, I intend fully to move on, way past Donald Trump and am looking forward to offering comment, perspective and some context on Joe Biden’s presidency.

If only Donald Trump would stop making news! Dadgummit to hell anyway!

Trump ventured to Valdosta, Ga., on Saturday ostensibly to promote the candidacies of Republican U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. What does Trump do? He goes off on a lengthy grievance-filled riff about the alleged “theft” of the presidential election.

He lied his a** off yet again, claiming voter fraud where none exists. He undermined the democratic process in a state governed by fellow Republicans. The Whiner in Chief asked GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special legislative session to demand the Georgia legislature toss out the results of the statewide total that went to President-elect Biden.

What in the name of governmental overreach is Trump trying to do? He cannot dictate to governors how to conduct state business.

To his (diminished) credit, Kemp has pushed back on Trump’s demand. Trump has said he is “ashamed” to have endorsed Kemp in his run for governor in 2018.

My goodness. The Imbecile in Chief is making an unmitigated, unvarnished, unbalanced, unstable, unhinged a** of himself.

I want to move on. Really and truly. I do. Donald John Trump won’t release me.

national news

Trump may invoke his M.O. and actually ‘concede,’ sort of

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s flash back for a moment.

Donald Trump spent about five years fomenting the lie that Barack Obama was born overseas and was not a U.S. citizen, meaning he couldn’t run for president of the United States. It was a blatantly racist attack on someone who was born in Hawaii to an American woman; thus, he was a citizen by birth.

Then came a one-sentence admission in 2016 that Obama “is a U.S. citizen.” That was it. End of discussion, more or less. Trump demonstrated his shameless modus operandi.

Now he is continuing to challenge the results of an election he clearly lost to President-elect Joe Biden. He is ranting. He is riffing. He is bitching about all the grievances over alleged “corruption” in the electoral process which he continues to label as “rigged.”

Hmm. How might this play out? Here’s a thought.

The Electoral College is meeting in about nine days to certify Joe Biden’s victory. He has accrued 306 electoral votes; he needs just 270 of them.

When the Electoral College certifies Biden’s victory, I believe it is entirely possible that Trump could issue a terse statement that declares Biden is the duly elected president of the United States. He won’t concede in the traditional sense.

There likely won’t be a phone call to the winner, congratulating him and pledging his support for the remainder of the time he is president. He won’t say a word about the rigorous campaign that Biden waged.

He’ll just say that Biden won. Then he’ll be done.

Trump might not show up for President Biden’s inaugural. Indeed, I do not expect him to be there. Trump will get on Air Force One and jet off to Mar-a-Lago to play some golf and schmooze with his cronies.

Is that out of the question? I don’t think so. Nothing this guy Trump does should surprise anyone on Earth.

Just be gone … Donald.