Monthly Archives: February 2021

Uncategorized

She’s off the committees, but not gone!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is good to cheer the House of Representatives for removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees.

The QAnon queen of the House has no business helping craft education policy, having called hideous school massacres made-up stories.

Greene, a Republican from Georgia, has been silenced, more or less, within the halls of Congress. She has not been silenced, though, as a political influencer. The House voted this week to kick her off the Education and Budget committees.

You see, this conspiracy theorist still has social media available to her to spew the filth that pours out of her pie hole. Which she will continue to do.

If only one could find a way to stuff a proverbial sock into her mouth. But … we cannot do that. The US Constitution gives all citizens the right of free speech. So, Marjorie Taylor Greene will continue to rant her nonsense.

And, by golly, there will be nimrods out among us who will buy into the sh** she will peddle.

Yes, this is a great country. However, sometimes …

national security

No briefings for Trump

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

“I’d rather not speculate out loud. I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

That about sums it up. President Biden has declared that Donald J. Trump, his immediate predecessor, won’t get intelligence briefings.

Biden says Trump shouldn’t get intel briefings (msn.com)

Indeed, what is the point of giving this information to someone who placed so little value on the daily presidential briefings to which he was entitled when he held the office? None, as far as anyone can tell.

It’s usually customary to give immediate past presidents these briefings. It is meant as a courtesy to the individual who had immediate access to the most sensitive information in the country until the moment he left the presidency.

Trump, though, has engaged in some of the most hideous behavior imaginable since losing his re-election bid in 2020. He has not — and may never — accepted the results of the election. He has not yet congratulated President Biden specifically.

And, of course, he egged on the terrorist mob to storm Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. We know what happened on that terrible day.

Give him presidential intelligence briefings? No way, man.

national news

Trump won’t testify … imagine that

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This likely is the biggest non-surprise of the lead-up to next week’s impeachment trial of Donald John Trump.

It is that Trump won’t testify in his own defense on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Democratic House trial managers had summoned the former president to testify in the trial that will determine whether he committed “incitement of insurrection,” as spelled out by the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment.

Why won’t Trump testify? My strong guess is that he would have to swear to tell the “whole truth” to the Senate that will act as jurors. The trial managers would have put Trump under oath to tell the truth. Failure to do so would result in perjury, which is a criminal offense.

Do you get where I am going with this? If not, here it is: This individual cannot tell the truth!Ā He is incapable or unwilling to tell the truth, even under threat of criminal punishment.

The evidence of what Trump did on Jan. 6 has been recorded for posterity. He stood before a mob of terrorist rioters and told them to march on Capitol Hill to “take back our country.” They must not act out of weakness, the president said. The terrorists took him at his word and stormed into the Capitol Building to stop the certification of the 2020 election, which Congress was in the process of doing.

The mob killed five people, including a Capitol Police officer. They shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” while looking for the vice president. They shouted for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

They acted on the instigation of Donald Trump.

My lingering thought is: How does Trump defend his conduct?Ā 

Defending the indefensible is too steep a hill to climb, especially for a pathological liar who would have to swear to tell the truth.

local news, medical news

Plano … you had a problem

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We were alarmed Thursday night when we heard the news about a COVID vaccine site that had run into some, um, difficulty.

My wife was scheduled to report at that very site at John Clark Stadium in Plano, Texas, the next day to receive the first of two COVID vaccine doses. We held our breath this morning as we set out for her rendezvous with immunity from the killer pandemic virus.

We arrived 25 minutes after leaving our house in Princeton.

Then something quite cool happened. We drove Big Jake, our 3/4-ton pickup, into line. We inched forward. We met with a young attendant who took down some information from my bride.

We then drove to another line. We waited a few more minutes. Then we met a second COVID vaccine staffer, who took some more info from her.

Then came the final stop. My wife chatted for a moment with the third attendant, answered a few medical questions.

Then she got the shot. Ba-da-boom … she was done.

I checked the clock. Finished in less than an hour.

News reports the previous evening told us about overbooking at that site because of no-shows and cancellations. We heard about agonizing waits in line, with residents told there were no vaccine doses left; they were turned away.

We didn’t have any particular expectation of similar problems today, only a nagging fear that they might present themselves to my wife.

They did not. What’s more, and this is a rather amazing thing to report, the staff working on the parking lot at Clark Stadium could not have been more courteous, friendly and professional. The personal demeanor actually made the experience almost enjoyable.

She got the Pfizer vaccine, which means she returns in three weeks for the second dose. Now that we know what to expect, there will be far less dread waiting for the end of this vaccine protocol.

I just want to offer a word of thanks and appreciation to some folks who are under a lot of pressure to serve an anxious community.

national news

Hey, Liz … what happened?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Just when I thought a conservative Republican member of Congress was rising above the partisan fray …

She votes to keep a QAnon believer in her House committee seats.

Rep. Liz Cheney, you disappointed me. Cheney, who voted to impeach Donald Trump on Jan. 13, on Thursday cast a vote against tossing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off the Education and Budget committees.

Dang it! I thought she was capable of standing up against the Trumpkins among the House GOP caucus and fight for principle. She’s been getting political threats already for voting to impeach Trump. She won a key GOP caucus vote to retain her leadership post within the GOP House ranks.

She sided with the QAnon/crackpot wing of her party by voting to keep Greene on those key panels. Remember that Greene once said that school massacres were phony stories and that 9/11 didn’t happen.

Oh, did I mention that Rep. Cheney’s father, Dick Cheney, was vice president of the United States when the terrorists hit us on 9/11? There. I just did.

Still, her vote to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene on those panels is a disappointment. I am so glad to see that most of the House saw fit to silence this lunatic within the halls of Congress.

national news

If only it was ‘peaceful’ …

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Twelve years ago, Republican President George W. Bush opened the door to his successor, a Democrat, who won a hard-fought election to succeed him. Barack Obama began the transition to president of the United States seamlessly and in an orderly fashion.

This time? Another Republican, Donald Trump, lost a re-election fight, also to a Democrat, Joe Biden. His reaction? He slammed the brakes on any semblance of peaceful, orderly and seamlessness on that transition.

President Bush reacts to Obama’s victory in 2008 election – YouTube

President Obama took office with a nation in turmoil. The economy was collapsing. Yes, the tossed a lot of blame on GOP policies and the president. However, George W. Bush set all of that aside to welcome the new president and his family to the White House.

Donald Trump has shown no such class. He claims the election was rigged. He fomented a terrorist attack on the Capitol. Five people died in the melee.

Thus, the new president has taken office with the nation reeling from economic collapse and fighting a worldwide pandemic that has killed nearly a half-million Americans.

The president he defeated is facing a second impeachment trial in the Senate. Members of Congress are expressing outright fear of serving with their colleagues. The anger and outright loathing is palpable among them.

This isn’t how it is supposed to go. Yet this is what we face today as President Biden seeks ways to rid the nation of the pandemic and right our ship of state.

There once was a time when candidates sparred, one of them would win, the loser would dust himself off, call the winner, congratulate him and promise to “work with” him to keep the country moving forward. This most recent election has jumbled that formula for success.

A return of that time-tested practice isn’t going to return soon. It well might eventually. Indeed, the peaceful transition of power — which now sounds cliche — is an essential ingredient for “making America great.”Ā 

national news

Count ’em: 11 GOP heroes emerge

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Eleven Republicans emerged this afternoon during a vote to kick a fellow GOP House member off two committees because of insanely offensive remarks she has made.

Just 11 of them. Out of more than 200 members of the GOP caucus. Sad. However, the number of Republicans with courage exceeded experts’ predictions.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene no longer serves on the Education and Budget committees. The House today voted her off the panels because she is a QAnon follower who has said some amazingly crass things about tragic events. Such as that the Sandy Hook and Parkland school massacres were made up; that 9/11 didn’t really occur; that Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to hold elected office; that Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be assassinated.

It was a bipartisan vote today to remove her from any committee assignments. However, many of us with there would have been more Republican House members to join their Democratic colleagues in speaking out against the hate spewed by Rep. Greene.

I am sorry to say that no one in the Texas GOP congressional caucus rose up against Greene. They all stood with her. I intend to ask my congressman, Republican Van Taylor of Plano, why he voted “no” on removing her from Education and Budget panels. I hope he answers me directly instead of sending out a boiler-plate helping of platitudes.

For now I want to salute the 11 House Republicans who mustered up the decency to do the right thing by rebuking a colleague for the hatred she represents.

International news, national news

Biden reverses course in foreign policy

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden has demonstrated a recognition that Donald J. Trump never did … which is that the world is shrinking in a figurative sense and that the United States cannot possibly go it alone on matters that involve the entire planet.

He delivered a foreign policy speech and told the world that the United States is re-engaging its worldwide allies and calling — get a load of this — for greater attention to human rights.

“Though many of these values have come under intense pressure in recent years, even pushed to the brink in the last few weeks, the American people are going to emerge from this stronger, more determined and better equipped to unite the world in fighting to defend democracy ā€“ because we have fought for it ourselves,ā€ he said.

You’ll recall how Donald Trump attended a NATO meeting and upbraided our allies in public for not paying more to defend themselves. He sought to shed our traditional role as guarantor of freedom in western Europe. While it is good that our allies have stepped up and are paying more for their own defense, the public scolding from the U.S. commander in chief left our allies with the feeling that they no longer could trust this country to be there for them when threats emerge.

As USA Today reported:Ā Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, warned that the U.S. faces a moment of ā€œaccelerating global challengesā€ ā€“ from a pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation ā€“ all of which he said will be solved only by nations working together.

“We can’t do it alone,” he said.

‘Diplomacy is back’: Biden promises to restore ties with allies in dramatic foreign policy shift (msn.com)

Exactly, Mr. President. We need our allies. We need our alliances from which we frame our relationships with friends around the world.

I am one American who welcomes our return to the Paris Climate Accord and to the World Health Organization, two issues from which Donald Trump severed U.S. involvement as part of his effort to “put America first.”

Greater reliance on our alliances will not compromise American interests, as President Biden said in his 20-minute speech. Thus, Joe Biden also intends — in a far more nuanced and sophisticated manner — to put America first … but we won’t act alone.

national news

Liz Cheney: a new hero?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s time in public office has resulted in many seemingly impossible events.

Such as turning me — an unabashed center/lefty — into a fan of a right-wing politician who, in this instance, is Liz Cheney.

Cheney is a Republican House member from Wyoming. She’s No. 3 on the GOP congressional leadership chart. She voted on Jan. 13 to impeach Donald Trump, deciding that Trump’s incitement of an insurrection was too much for her … and for the nation.

Rep. Cheney is right. Trump was as wrong as wrong can be to bellow his encouragement for the riotous mob to march on Jan. 6 on Capitol Hill to “take back our country.”

Cheney is now the target of Trumpkin Corps members among her colleagues in the House. They want to remove Cheney from her leadership post. The House GOP caucus, though, decided overwhelmingly to keep her in that position. Good for them.

Good also for Liz Cheney for standing up for the Constitution.

Uncategorized

More than QAnon Queen to worry about

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is tempting to single out an individual who stands above a particular fray. So it has been with Marjorie Taylor Greene, the person I have dubbed the QAnon Queen of the House … of Representatives.

She deserves to be stripped of her committee assignments and sent to the back of the room. She can talk to herself and to her friends in the sedition caucus of the Republican membership in the House.

This brings me to a critical point, which is that there are more House members and senators who share this individual’s warped, distorted and disgusting world view. We need to keep our eyes peeled to their activities as well.

Who else is out there? I shudder to think that a newly elected rep from North Texas, Republican Beth Van Duyne of Irving, might be among them. She has become the target of vigorous political advertising that suggests she shares the loony bin notions being touted by Greene and others.

Oh, then we have Rep. Louie Gohmert from Tyler, who’s been faithful to his birther notions about former President Obama.

You know how I feel about Sen. Ted Cruz, the Houston Republican. Enough said about the Cruz Missile.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned us that the “enemy is within” the ranks of House members and senators. Boy howdy, Mme. Speaker.

I intend to remain vigilant to the nuttiness that can — and no doubt will — arise from Capitol Hill.

One more final point. Think of the irony that the very place that cameĀ  under attack on the Sixth of January from the terrorist mob — the halls of Congress — is now a potential hotbed for the type of lunacy that the rioters followed.

Astonishing.