Monthly Archives: July 2021

medical news

COVID has hit damn near everyone

By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

One of the persistent sources of madness in this contemporary political climate has been the insistence by some on the right that the COVID vaccines, which are demonstrably successful in preventing the disease, should become the “enemy.”

We are witnessing a surge in illness among the unvaccinated Americans stricken by the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.

Indeed, what is shocking to me is how many Americans have been affected in a real way by the virus. Those of us who haven’t been stricken by it still know people who have. Many thousands of Americans have bid farewell to loved ones. Millions of others — such as my family and I — have had loved ones stricken by the disease.

We have lost friends to the disease. It’s a real threat to the nation’s health, you know?

The pandemic has hit all of us in some fashion.

And yet …

There remains this core of Americans who insist that the virus somehow, in some manner just isn’t as dangerous as those in the media and those damn medical experts have made it out to be.

They are absurdly wrong, of course. Too many of us know better. There are those of us who have watched our friends and family members get sickened by this killer virus.

The death count is 614,000 Americans and counting. The worldwide total is more than 4 million. These are not phony numbers. They are as real as the disease that has felled so many of us.

The vaccines are saving lives as I type these words. They are among the most devastating weapons we can deploy against the virus. Still, the deniers continue to drive me out of my mind.

Sigh … 

medical news

‘Choice’ has its limits

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The idiocy being bandied about among conservative “thinkers” and assorted right-wing talking heads about those who “make a choice to forgo the COVID vaccine” miss a fundamental truth about society.

Yes, they are able to make that choice. I do not deny that obvious fact. However, making such a choice — if that is their call — carries with it some serious consequences that go far beyond their own well being.

We are able to choose to drink adult beverages. We do not have the right to do so and then drive a motor vehicle while impaired. Doing so endangers others who share the same public roadways.

We also have the choice to play music loudly. We can play rock ‘n roll music until our eardrums bleed. However, we have laws that prohibit us from doing so in the wee hours of the morning; we cannot disturb other people’s sleep.

Indeed, we have laws all over the place that regulate our behavior. Why? Because at times some of us commits acts that others either find offensive, or bothersome, or put them in potential grave danger.

Do you get my drift here?

Yes, we can choose to do without the vaccine. What happens, though, when that choice endangers others? What happens when, after choosing to go without the medicine that would prevent us from getting the COVID virus, we get sick? Or when we infect others? Or when our children get sick? Or when they infect their friends?

Our choices can have serious consequences that affect far more than just you and me.

As we battle these COVID variants — some of which have become highly contagious and highly transmissible — we should be mindful about the “choices” we make.

As for me and what I want for my family, we all have chosen to get vaccinated and, no, I have no problem at all with government telling us to get vaccinated if it keeps us safe from a potentially deadly infection.

local news

These men are true heroes

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

While watching the four D.C. and Capitol police officers testify before a House committee on the harrowing events of Jan. 6, I was drawn back to an experience I once had while working in Amarillo, Texas.

I also was reminded of something I have believed for as long as I have believed anything: police officers perform heroic acts every day. 

In 2003, I attended a citizens police academy hosted by the Amarillo Police Department. It was an 11-week course that acquainted class members with many aspects of police work.

I long have believed in the heroism that officers perform while protecting us. I also am aware of the heat many of them have gotten in recent years over the manner they have behaved and the injustice they have delivered at times in the performance of their duty.

The men who spoke to the House select committee about what they experienced during the Capitol Hill insurrection brought much of that belief into vivid view as I recalled my brief exposure to police work during my academy stint.

These four men demonstrated their heroism on that terrible day. They have earned our eternal respect and gratitude.

 

Sports news

Can we really understand this pressure?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Simone Biles has walked away from Olympic glory.

Or has she? The premier U.S. gymnast took herself out of the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics the other day, citing emotional stress and unreadiness to compete.

I am not going to weigh in with a heavy-duty critique of what she did. Nor am I going to try to assess why she has bowed out and might be done altogether as the current Olympic Games plays out.

You see, few of us outsiders can understand fully the pressure, the intense scrutiny, the proverbial weight of the world pressing down on the shoulders of a young athlete who competes at the highest level imaginable.

For that reason alone — my ignorance of what she is enduring and has endured during her years on the world athletic stage — I am going to give this young woman a pass.

I want her to find peace. I want her to expunge whatever demons are lurking inside her soul. I wish her the very best … which I suppose when you add all this up is my  endorsement of Simone Biles’s decision to bow out.

DC riot

That’s it! Blame Pelosi!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ahh, yes. The Republican counter strategy to the congressional hearing that commenced today to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection is taking quick shape.

The GOP is seeking to turn our attention to the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. The Republican top guns are asking: What did the speaker know in advance of the terrorist riot and why didn’t she do anything to stop it?

You got that? I think it’s called “projection.”

The House select committee today heard from four Capitol and Metropolitan police officers who were among those who were injured in the melee that erupted when POTUS 45 incited the mob to march on Capitol Hill; he wanted them to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

The mob broke into the Capitol Building, defecated on the floor, sought out Pelosi and chanted “Hang (Vice President) Mike Pence!”

They launched an all-out assault on our democratic process. Meanwhile, the then-Liar in Chief did not a damn thing to stop the riot.

So now the moron’s GOP allies want to project blame for the riot on Pelosi?

Give me a f***ing break!

None of us should stand still for this trash. The GOP continues to downplay the significance and the horror of that event. Indeed, it should stand directly next to other infamous dates in our history: 9/11, Dec. 7, to name just two. 

For the Republican congressional leadership to seek to divert our attention away from the cause of the insurrection is reprehensible on its face. Then again, it only goes to prove that they cannot defend the indefensible.

national news

No huggin’ and kissin’

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee assigned to get to the truth behind the Sixth of January insurrection against our democratic process convened its hearing today.

The nation saw a good bit of video from the treasonous riot by terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill that day.

What the did not see was anything resembling what the 45th POTUS said occurred. We didn’t see “huggin’ and kissin'” by D.C. and Metropolitan Police officers with the crowd that stormed Capitol Hill.

Oh, no. We saw violence in the flesh! We saw men and women beating officers within an inch of their lives. We heard them scream “traitor!” at police officers seeking to defend the Capitol against the riotous mob.

Hugging and kissing? It, um, wasn’t there.

And yet … we are going to hear an interpretation of those hideous events by Republican defenders of the former Insurrectionist in Chief. They will seek to turn the tables on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who appointed the select panel. They will wonder out loud about security concerns that Pelosi reportedly knew prior to the riot.

The former POTUS hasn’t yet taken an ounce of responsibility for inciting the riot. He hasn’t yet accepted that he lost the 2020 presidential election. The ex-Moron in Chief hasn’t yet done a single thing to demonstrate loyalty to the Constitution, to the government, to the sacred democratic process.

The select panel, which comprises seven Democrats and two Republicans, will seek to get to the truth behind what happened that day.

If I could ask one thing of the panel, I want them to look at this: I want them to probe deeply what the then-POTUS was doing inside the White House while the mob threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence. 

What’s more, let us not be shy or coy about what we’re talking about here. The riot was an insurrection in its purest form. It was a day — to borrow a phrase — that will live in infamy.

national news

Alternative reality vs. the truth

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You might recall how POTUS 45’s senior policy adviser referred to “alternative facts” as they regarded the size of the inaugural crowd on Jan. 20, 2017.

Here we are, more than four years later and the ex-POTUS’s corps of cultists are wrapped in an alternative reality as the House select committee commences its hearing into the insurrectionist riot of Jan. 6.

The House panel, comprising Democrats and Republicans, are going to sift through a mountain of facts relating to what the entire world witnessed on that horrible day.

However, I fear that none of those facts will sink in to the noggins of the cultists who continue to believe The Big Lie that POTUS 45 spews forth, the lie that sparked the riot of Jan. 6.

What I witnessed that day was an all-out assault on our democratic process. The terrorists sought to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election and hand the presidency back to the Insurrectionist in Chief who lost to President Biden.

The alternative reality will be a difficult wall to knock down. I sincerely wish the select committee well as it pores through the evidence we all witnessed in real time.

national news

Tough ‘reality TV’ viewing awaits

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This much is utterly certain: I am going to have a difficult time watching and listening to the U.S. congressional hearing into the Jan. 6 insurrection against the government.

The testimony I am hearing today from one of the Capitol police officers is compelling, disturbing and heartbreaking.

The video to which the world was treated at the start of today’s opening hearing is as difficult to watch as the 9/11 terrorist attack that occurred nearly 20 years ago.

To think that some in Congress — namely its Republican caucus members — equate the insurrection to a “tourist” excursion is the most outrageous insult I can imagine.

Proceed with wisdom and discernment, members of the House select committee. The world is watching.

national news

If only he would do this

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If the 45th president of the U.S. of A. had an ounce, a smidgen, a sliver, the tiniest grain of decency buried somewhere within his overfed body, he would call a press conference.

Then he would say the following before taking a few questions from the media:

My fellow Americans, I am here today to urge every resident of this great land to get vaccinated against the COVID pandemic virus.

As you know, my family and I all have received our vaccines. Yes, my wife and I did so secretly in our final months in the White House. My point, though, is that we did it. I urge you all to follow our lead.

Do not listen to those who question the effectiveness of the vaccine. Do not heed the warnings of crazy things happening to your body. I am going to be a human testament to the vaccines’ effectiveness and their safety.

The surge in the Delta variant is rooted solely in the unvaccinated among us. We must stop this spread. Vaccines are the only way to do it.

***

The 45th POTUS won’t ever say such a thing in public. Why not? Because doing so would require him to reveal that he actually cares about you and me, about the country he once swore an oath to defend and protect and about those who have been stricken by the virus that has killed more than 600,000 Americans.

He won’t do it because he cares only about himself.

Lightning might strike. Were it to do so, we could save many thousands of lives.

national news

Let the probe begin

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

They’re going to start a congressional hearing that we all should hope will produce some clear-headed truth into what transpired on the Sixth of January this year.

That day we all witnessed an all-out assault on our democratic process by a mob of terrorists who could not accept that their hero — the 45th president — had lost a free and fair election to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

They engaged in the worst attack on Capitol Hill since the War of 1812. I am one American patriot who welcomes the select committee’s assignment given to it by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It is to find the truth and to present ways to prevent such an egregious attack on our system from recurring.

Pelosi picks Kinzinger for select panel … yes! | High Plains Blogger

Will the select panel — comprising members of both parties — be able to conduct their investigation fairly and without bias? I believe it will. I do not expect the rabid minority among Americans to accept anything they present. Their minds (such as they are) remain closed tightly to anything that would cast POTUS 45 in a negative light.

The committee will proceed as planned. It will call witnesses. It will grill them intently on what they knew, when they knew it and what they did in real time to prevent to horrifying assault from enveloping the Capitol.

The process the mob threatened had commenced the certification of President Biden’s election. Biden’s predecessor hasn’t yet accepted that he lost the election. He continues to promote The Big Lie about vote fraud. Indeed, it was The Big Lie that led to the assault on the Capitol, to the injury of dozens of people — including police officers on duty to protect the Capitol and those who work there — and the deaths of several others … including one of those valiant officers.

To think that congressional Republicans are resisting this investigation is mind-blowing to the max. However, the investigation will commence. I will look forward to the select committee finishing its job and reporting to the rest of the world what it learned.