Monthly Archives: January 2021

medical news

Words to live by … literally!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Check out the image I attached to this blog post. It contains some powerful words of wisdom that the nimrods of this world need to heed. It showed up today on my Facebook feed, so I thought I would share it with you.

The pandemic that has killed something north of 350,000 Americans is still running amok. Donald J. Trump has ridiculed those who wear masks. He actually needled the man who beat him in the 2020 presidential election because he wears a mask when he ventured into the public.

The Trumpkin Corps of Kooks has bought into their man’s cavalier attitude toward the masks and even toward the danger the pandemic has posed.

I had an up-close look at one of them recently in a Princeton, Texas, supermarket. This woman went off on a store employee about how Gov. Greg Abbott was being dictatorial by requiring Texans to wear masks.

She should see the message I attached to this blog post. Hey, maybe she’s seen it on her own social media network.

I am one American who does not object to wearing a mask; nor do I object to maintaining distance between myself and the other guy waiting in line; nor do I mind washing my hands or cleaning surfaces with sanitary wipes.

If it keeps my family and me healthy and COVID free, I am all for it.

national news, political news

Trump displays breathtaking ignorance

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump displays a breathtaking degree of ignorance about a government he is about to leave behind.

Let’s ponder what is about to transpire.

Vice President Mike Pence is going to preside Wednesday over a joint congressional session that will ratify what we already know as stone-cold fact: that the Electoral College has certified that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the president- and vice president-elect respectively.

They defeated Trump and Pence in the Nov. 3 election.

Yet we hear that Trump is badgering/hectoring/threatening Pence, ordering him to challenge the results he is about to receive while swinging the gavel over the joint congressional session.

Except for this: Pence cannot do a single, solitary thing about the result. He must accept the result and then declare to the world that Biden and Harris will take office on Jan. 20.

Axios and other media are reporting that Trump didn’t know about the vice president’s ceremonial role until just recently. Still, having learned that VP Pence cannot change a vote, he cannot alter a result per Trump’s urging, that he must adhere to the U.S. Constitution, Trump continues to pressure Pence to violate the law.

So help me, Trump’s rebellion against the government he took an oath to defend and protect has crossed the line into criminality.

He demanded that Georgia’s secretary of state change the outcome of that state’s presidential outcome. He has badgered election officials in other swing states to do the same. He has filed and lost lawsuit after lawsuit seeking to cling to power.

I have not yet tried to analyze to my own satisfaction why Trump cannot or will not do what is normal, which is to accept defeat like a man and move on to the next phase of his life. It must be that he isn’t really a man, that he is a petulant little boy disguised in a man’s overfed body.

But … good news awaits us in just 14 days. Just two weeks! Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office. They will restore knowledge of government to the individuals who will run it. They will usher in an end to the failed experiment of being governed by a president who brought zero public service experience to — or knowledge of — the most exalted public office in the nation.

I am waiting anxiously.

national news

GOP exhibits stunning duplicity

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The hypocrisy and duplicity among congressional Republicans as they prepare to challenge an electoral result is simply breathtaking in its scope.

Consider what Republicans were saying during the Donald J. Trump impeachment inquiry in 2019. They opposed impeaching Trump because, they said, the people deserve the right to be heard. Let the people decide at the ballot box whether Trump is worthy of staying in office.

Well, voters made their decision in 2020. They elected Joseph R. Biden Jr. president of the United States. He corralled more than 7 million votes than Trump. He collected well more than enough Electoral College votes to secure the election.

The GOP stance now? They don’t trust the vote. The election was rigged. Democrats stole the election from Trump. Widespread voter fraud erupted all across the nation. Now a handful of these nimrods want to challenge the Electoral College results on Wednesday when the House and Senate meet jointly to canvass the votes and ratify the result: that Joe Biden will take office on Jan. 20 as the 46th president of the United States.

What in the name of electoral integrity are these clowns trying to do? Whatever their aim, it will fail. GOP opposition to this insurrection is building, with key Republican senators voicing their intention to endorse Biden’s election when they get the chance.

Still, I am trying to catch my breath while watching the GOP congressional caucus wring its hands over what constitutionally is set up as a mere formality.

The moron cabal of the GOP is being led by a man — Donald Trump — who is totally ignorant of what the Constitution allows. They all deserve each other.

national news

Defense secretaries shout it out: no use of troops!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The collective voices of wisdom are starting to be heard as Donald Trump continues his insane effort to cling to power.

Those voices belong to 10 former secretaries of defense who, at the urging of one of them, published a letter to the Washington Post decrying any possibility that Trump would deploy troops to become involved in a domestic election dispute.

Dick Cheney, who served as vice president under George W. Bush  and defense secretary under George H.W. Bush, reportedly instigated the letter. The document was signed by the likes of former secretaries James Mattis and Mark Esper — two men who served in the Trump administration — as well as Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, William Perry and Chuck Hagel. Republicans and Democrats locked arms to offer a clear warning to Donald Trump, who is now just 15 days from exiting the presidency.

They wrote, according to National Public Radio:

“Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted,” the ten men from both Republican and Democratic administrations, wrote.

“The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived,” they said.

Will this message sink into that vacuous skull perched atop Donald Trump? If not, it damn well should.

These men served our nation with honor. Their words need to be taken seriously.

“Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly,” they wrote. “They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”

Pay attention, Mr. POTUS!

national news

Presidential Medal of Freedom … to these guys?

REUTERS/Erin Scott – RC2SRD9C9IES

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Others have weighed in already, but I have to throw my rhetorical pittance into the mix.

Donald Trump has decided to cheapen the Presidential Medal of Freedom — this great nation’s highest civilian honor — by draping it around the necks of two of his most ardent political allies/hacks.

Yep, U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes will be handed the same honor that historically has gone to individuals who contribute to the national security and the cultural and social life of the nation.

What in the world have Jordan and Nunes done? Well, they have been two of Trump’s most ardent political allies. They have led the charge against allegations that got Trump impeached by the House of Representatives. Nunes cooked up bogus intelligence reports about Trump’s Russia connections. Jordan badgered witnesses mercilessly … and has been accused of looking the other way while athletes under his charge as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University were being sexually assaulted.

This is Donald Trump’s modus operandi. He honors those who are loyal to him. That’s what matters to this individual.

national news

The Call: worse than many of us thought

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have listened to The Call. All of it. I have read every word of it.

My goodness. It was worse than many Americans — chiefly Donald Trump’s defenders — thought it was when word came out that Trump made the phone call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.

I have attached a link to the transcript to this blog post. It’s worth reading from beginning to end.

READ: Transcript of Trump phone call with Georgia secretary of state | TheHill

Trump described his phone call to Ukraine’s president as “perfect” even when we learned that Trump solicited Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden. It was “perfectly” criminal, in my mind, what Trump did then. It led to his impeachment.

He’s just 15 days from exiting the White House, so impeachment now is out of the question. Prosecution, though, after he leaves office is quite possible. Its probability, though, relies on what the new leadership at the Justice Department and President Biden decide to do about it.

Donald Trump’s agonizing — for us, not him — departure from the White House has been fraught with phony claims of voter fraud, with his refusal to concede losing a free and fair election and now with possibly criminal coercion of state election officials.

It remains doubtful that Trump could be prosecuted for federal crimes in this Georgia phone call matter. The state, though, has statutes that say it is a crime to ask anyone else to commit a crime. That is what the phone call transcript clearly illustrates transpired when Trump called Raffensperger. The president asked the Georgia secretary of state to “find” enough votes to flip the state’s electoral votes from Biden to Trump.

Let’s be clear. Georgia recounted the votes three times after the polls closed. They all produced a Biden victory over Trump. It wasn’t by a huge margin. However, the margin has remained stable through all the recounts and an audit of the tally. Today, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling (pictured) took Trump’s complaint apart piece by piece.

I have no clue where this will lead eventually. It’s just that the more we see and hear from the lame-duck president, the worse it gets.

And the more anxiousness I develop while waiting for an end to this presidential nightmare.

national news

Is a capitulation possible?

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Here’s a thought to ponder, not that I am predicting; just offering this item as a potential development that could really upset damn near everything we’ve been saying about Donald J. Trump.

Just suppose …

  • That after Congress ratifies the Electoral College victory that President-elect Biden won on Nov. 3, Trump throws in the towel.
  • That he decides there really is no path to “overturn” the results of an election that Biden won handily.
  • That he gives up his lawless and feckless fight and says — through gritted teeth — that Joe Biden is the next president of the United States. He wouldn’t offer congratulations or good wishes. He would just, um, say that Biden won the election.

Do you think it’s possible? Do you think that someone who is as mercurial and behaves as bizarrely as Trump is capable of just surrendering to the reality that we all know exists?

Sigh … I don’t think so, either. But with this idiot, you just never know.

national news

Awaiting this inaugural

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Every so often I state my love of pageantry.

Readers of this blog know, how I love parades, patriotic music, pomp and circumstance, the sight of all those Old Glories flying in the breeze.

We’re going to get a lot of such pageantry on Jan. 20. That’s when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office as president and vice president of the United States of America.

This upcoming inaugural is going to be different than practically all that have preceded it. There won’t be as much pomp and circumstance as before. The coronavirus pandemic is going to limit crowd size and the scope of the celebration.

That won’t matter to me.

What does matter is that President Biden and Vice President Harris take their oaths and get down immediately to the task of repairing the damage being inflicted right now, today, in real time by Donald John Trump.

That means when the clock strikes noon EST on the 20th of January, Chief Justice John Roberts is going to extend his hand and say to Joe Biden, “Congratulations, Mr. President.”

I plan to watch every minute of that glorious event. I also plan to have a box of tissue handy. I expect fully to shed a tear of joy as I watch the new president take charge.

I do love the pageantry of it all. This year, the circumstances of Donald Trump’s angry, embittered, unlawful exit only lends to the emotion I am bound to feel as the Seditionist/Liar/Narcissist/Sore Loser in Chief exits the stage.

national news

Call it ‘horrific’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Horrific.

Simply horrific.

I am utterly astounded beyond belief at what is transpiring inside the White House — my house, your house, our house — as it regards the con man masquerading as president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump has demanded that Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensberger “find” 11,800 votes that would overturn that state’s presidential verdict in November. Georgia sent its electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. Trump wants those votes for himself and is asking Georgia’s top election official to break the law.

That all by itself is a violation of the law.

We have a lawless, amoral, narcissistic carnival barker seeking to subvert our democratic process. It might fall into the category of treason, but it looks for all the world like sedition, which is another way of seeking to overthrow government processes.

Donald Trump’s fomenting the latest Big Lie about “widespread voter fraud” is just beyond every pale I can imagine.

However, I am going to offer a glimmer of good news. Trump’s effort to overturn the election will fail. Congress on Wednesday will ratify what the Electoral College has certified, that Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were elected Nov. 3. There will be an inauguration on Jan. 20. President Biden and Vice President Harris will take office on that day.

Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence will be gone.

That clear and unambiguous path out of this sheer madness gives me reason for hope that we will survive this horrific drama.

national news

Will new POTUS rethink whether to prosecute Trump?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President-elect Biden is on record saying he has no interest in pursuing federal charges against his immediate predecessor once he leaves office.

Now we hear from the Georgia secretary of state declaring that Donald Trump might have violated federal law by pressuring him to find 11,000 votes to flip so that Trump could put Georgia in the “win” column from the 2020 election.

I believe they call it election tampering, yes?

Secretary of state Ben Raffensperger — a Republican — doesn’t say he wants Trump to be prosecuted, but that he well might face scrutiny from the Justice Department.

The recording of the phone call aired over the weekend suggests Trump was intent on strong-arming Georgia to flip the outcome. Federal statute specifically prohibits such chicanery. No one is above the law, correct? That means the POTUS can be prosecuted if he violates the law.

The phone call is about as “perfect” as the call Trump made to the Ukraine president to solicit dirt on Joe Biden.

Yep, the lame-duck president of the United States is out of control and out of his mind.

I now am wondering if the new president should be rethinking the notion of forgoing a federal probe into this latest criminal act by the current president.