Monthly Archives: August 2021

International news, military news

Confused and frightened

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The pending withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan has me confused and frightened.

The frightening aspect comes with the advance of Taliban forces that are taking city after city in their march toward reasserting control over a country we thought we had “liberated” when we invaded it shortly after 9/11 … which was nearly 20 years ago.

The Taliban are set to take control of Kabul, the capital city of the embattled nation perhaps in the next few weeks.

The Taliban is about as evil and vile as any group on Earth. Thus, it frightens me in the extreme to see what might happen to Afghanistan if the Taliban retake control of the country.

My confusion stems from the fact that we went through three presidential administrations overseeing our combat role in Afghanistan. From George W. Bush, to Barack H. Obama and then to Donald J. Trump our forces were thought to be helping prepare the Afghan forces to defend their country against the Taliban. Joe Biden took office in January and declared our intention to pull out before the 20th year commemorating the 9/11 attacks that precipitated our involvement in our longest war.

Did we waste all that time, money, effort and blood by failing to train and equip the Afghan forces adequately?

To be brutally candid, I am wondering if the Biden administration truly understood the gravity of the Taliban’s military capability when it decided to end our involvement in this drawn-out fight.

I want our troops to come home. I also had hoped we could leave Afghanistan in a position to defend itself. My first wish is about to come true. The second wish makes me wonder about the wisdom of what we were doing there in the first place.

medical news

Pols vs. docs: Who do we believe?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There once was a time not too long ago when we thought we had made the turn down the stretch in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then came the variant called Delta. It’s changed. So now we’re being treated to a war of words between elected politicians and medical experts.

Who do you believe? The pols — some of whom want to run for president in 2024 or the physicians/scientists/researchers who have no obvious political ambition?

Hmm. I am going to stick with the docs. I will ignore the politicians.

We have clowns such as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida making an utter a** of himself by threatening to withhold salaries of school officials who order students and teachers to wear masks to fight the COVID pandemic.

Here in Texas, we have another GOP governor, Greg Abbott, who issued an order that bans schools, counties and cities from taking measures that go beyond what the governor has decreed. School officials in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Austin have defied the governor’s order. Why did they do that? Because the medical experts in their respective communities have told them that requiring masks will help stem the infection rates cause by that Delta variant.

Congress is sprinkled with fruitcakes and assorted nut jobs who keep suggesting that mask-wearing mandates deprive us of our “freedom” to live like Americans. Hey, listen up goofballs: I prefer to live, period. The alternative — illness and possible death — would rob me of much more “freedom” than any order that comes from the county courthouse, city hall or the school district administration.

The doctors have the knowledge, the information, the credentials and the credibility to withstand the criticism being leveled at them by political hacks.

I intend to stand with the medical experts.

They are the men and women with the skill and the knowledge to put the COVID-19 scourge down for the count.

education news

Why the no-mask mandate?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am willing to admit that there are a lot of things in this cold, cruel world I do not  understand.

One of those things is the nutty notion that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has embraced by declaring that only he can tell local governments how to react to the surge in infection from the COVID pandemic and its associated variants.

Abbott issued an executive order that bans school districts and other governmental jurisdictions from issuing mandates requiring masks indoors.

Several large independent public school districts — starting with Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston — have defied the governor. They have ordered everyone in their buildings to mask up. To which I say, “Good for you!”

My 8-year-old granddaughter started school today in Allen. The Allen Independent School District hasn’t followed the lead set by its bigger district neighbors in Dallas and Fort Worth. The kids aren’t being told they must wear masks while sitting in class, or walking into the cafeteria, or goofing off with their friends in the hall.

I have to ask: What in the name of preventive measures is Abbott thinking when he issues those no-can-do orders to local jurisdictions?

I used to talk occasionally to Gov. Abbott when he was a mere Texas Supreme Court justice and later state attorney general. He ran for governor the first time after I left the daily journalism world, so I haven’t had a ringside seat to watch his morphing from a reasonable Republican into some sort of cultist who follows the example set by the 45th POTUS.

I am left merely to shake my head in disbelief and amazement that he has put our children’s health in peril — and that includes my precious granddaughter — by telling school systems they are forbidden from taking measures they believe will save lives.

Greg Abbott is acting like a madman!

national news

Fauci is not our ‘enemy’

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Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One American’s “enemy” is another American’s hero.

With that said, I want to share a brief item that showed up today on my social media news feed. It comes from U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Florida Democrat who is running for a seat in the Senate occupied by Marco Rubio.

Demings said: Marjorie Taylor Greene called Dr. Fauci an “enemy to our nation” and members of the GOP like Marco Rubio have called for Dr. Fauci to be fired – so I’ve created a petition to stand up for Dr. Fauci and other scientists … 

Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene? She is the Georgia congresswoman who spouts stupid and insanely frightening rhetoric endorsed by the QAnon crowd about the pandemic, the vaccines developed to rid us of the virus and assorted other nonsense.

Greene, a Republican (of course!) is the true “enemy to our nation.” Dr. Anthony Fauci has become the go-to guy on the pandemic and how we need to ensure we do not become infected.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is entitled to spout her trash. I am entitled — indeed, obligated, in my view — to ignore it. Oh, and I also am entitled to speak out against such hideous idiocy.

national news

‘Distractions’ can be political killers

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Americans today received another textbook lesson on how scandalous “distractions” interfere with politicians who sign on to govern and to care for the public’s business.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned his office today effective in two weeks. He has been accused by 11 women of sexual harassment. Cuomo denies doing what they accuse him of doing but gave one of those “if I offended anyone” apologies that, to my ears, sends me into orbit.

Yes, he and what’s left of his staff have been distracted by the scandal. Cuomo no longer can govern. Every decision, every move he makes, every statement he utters would be cast against the allegations that many of us find credible.

President Lyndon Johnson cited the distraction of the Vietnam War protests at home before telling the world on March 31, 1968 that “I will not seek and will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

President Richard Nixon, whose administration was being swallowed whole by Watergate, never admitted to doing anything wrong when he tendered his resignation on Aug. 8, 1974. He, too, cited the “distraction” created by all the furor over what he did — which was to abuse the power of his office to cover up the burglary at the Democratic National Committee office in June 1972.

Distractions have this way of getting in front of governing officials.

Too bad, you know? That’s how it goes and that is how it went today as Andrew Cuomo became the latest pol — but surely not the last — to resign because he didn’t want to take a moment of attention away from the duties of his office.

This is what happens when politicians misbehave. I happen to believe the accusers who said Cuomo harassed them sexually. I also happen to believe that the governor is right about the reason for his resignation, that he didn’t want to be distracted by the furor and the fury his actions have generated.

I am left to ask: Is it too much to ask that we elect politicians who know better than to behave in a way that creates these “distractions”?

national news

B’bye, Gov. Cuomo

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Wow!

I could just leave it at that, but I’ll offer a few words about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation that takes effect in two weeks.

He has been accused — credibly in the eyes of almost everyone — of sexually harassing 11 women. Cuomo today denied doing what New York Attorney General Letitia James — a fellow Democrat — concluded he did. He accused her of bias.

Ah, but he did apologize. If you want to call it that.

The reason he quit today was because of the “distraction” all of this would create. Cuomo said governing would come to a halt. He would not allow that to happen.

His resignation had to occur. Why? Because he had no support in the New York State Assembly. Democratic pols throughout the land — including President Biden — said he should quit. Cuomo had squandered the ability to govern because of some “lifelong” habit of touching people and calling them “honey,” “sweetheart” and “darling.”

Good grief.

What he did not say during his resignation speech was something that President Nixon didn’t say in 1974 when he announced his resignation. He didn’t have the support of those within his own party. Nixon got an earful from GOP Sens. Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott and Bob Dole that were he to be impeached by the House for the Watergate scandal that he would be convicted in a Senate trial.

Cuomo faced impeachment in the New York Assembly. He would have been convicted.

He is two weeks away now from exiting the stage.

Fine. Now the state that Andrew Cuomo says he loves can get on with governing.

medical news, military news

Military to order vaccines

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Imagine you’re serving in the U.S. armed forces.

Your commanding officer or the non-commissioned officer in charge of your unit notices your boots aren’t shined properly. He or she orders you to shine ’em up, make ’em look pretty, shine them so you can see your face reflected back at you.

You do what you’re told, right? It’s a lawful order … which is why they call them “orders.” You are required to follow all lawful orders.

So it is that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has declared that every member of the U.S. armed forces — all 1.4 million men and women — will be required to be vaccinated against the COVD-19 virus and the assorted variants that are making Americans sick. That, too, is a lawful order.

I applaud the defense secretary — a retired four-star Army general — for issuing this order. He knows of which he speaks.

Is this going to mean that every soldier, sailor, Marine, Coast Guardsman, airman or space guardian will follow those orders without challenging them? Oh, probably not. We do live in a weird world that politicizes everything.

If they refuse, then their senior officers and NCOs need to take matters into their own hands and force them to be vaccinated.

Then they should toss the proverbial book at them.

State news

What would you do?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Let’s play this drama out a bit longer, shall we?

Dallas public school superintendent Michael Hinojosa has become a bit of a household name in just a few hours. He decided to defy an executive order from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott by ordering that everyone who works in or visits a Dallas public school wear a mask to prevent exposure to the COVID virus.

Abbott’s order said local public officials cannot do that.

I have been asking this of myself: If I were running a school district would I have the guts to defy a gubernatorial order? My own bias tells me I would. I dislike Abbott’s ham-handed approach to dictating to local officials how to protect their constituents. Still, to defy the governor in this fashion is to tempt political fate, given that school superintendents do represent fellow citizens who might disagree with a decision of such controversy and consequence.

Could I withstand the heat? To be honest, I cannot answer that question as I have never faced such a possibility … ever!

Dallas Independent School District is the second-largest district in Texas. The other Texas mega-districts sit in communities such as Harris, Travis, Tarrant and Bexar counties. They all have something in common. All of those counties voted in the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden. They opposed the 45th POTUS’s bid for re-election. I strongly suspect the former president’s blundering, feckless and untruthful response to the pandemic had something to do with voters’ decision to reject his re-election.

So now the politicization of this fight continues.

I happen to believe we well might see similar demonstrations of defiance in places — just like Dallas ISD — where residents are likely to endorse decisions such as the one handed down by Michael Hinojosa.

As for the smaller, more rural districts populated by voters who endorse the fecklessness of POTUS 45, they well might have to face their consciences if their refusal to take action results in more sickness … or worse.

education news

DISD boss plays it right

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The limb on which I will climb may be about to splinter and break, but I’ll venture out there anyway.

Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, in issuing his mask-wearing order for all students, teachers, staff and visitors to the public school system, is playing a sound political hand.

He is defying an order from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that prohibits local officials such as Hinojosa from issuing such directives. Hinojosa appears to be ignoring that edict from Austin, even though we are fighting a surge in infections from the Delta variant spawned by that damn pandemic.

Why? Because the voting constituency he serves — the parents of the students and the teachers who work in DISD — are likely to oppose Gov. Abbott’s ham-handed approach to telling school districts what they can and cannot do.

Were the superintendent in charge of a district parked in the middle of a rock-ribbed Republican-leaning county, such as, oh, Collin County (where I live), he might not have the guts to do what he did today in issuing the order in a district that sits primarily inside Dallas County (which by the way voted overwhelmingly for President Biden in the 2020 presidential election); Dallas County also voted by large margins for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Do you get my drift here?

Thus, it is with sadness that I will probably have to wait forever for other school district chieftains to follow Superintendent Hinojosa’s lead in demonstrating courage in our national fight against the COVID pandemic.

local news, medical news

Dallas school boss to Gov. Abbott: Take your order and …

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well, you know the rest of it.

Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa today well might have become the first domino to topple in the state’s effort to stop the spread of a killer virus among our public schools.

He said that effective Tuesday, all schools within the DISD will require everyone to wear masks while indoors. That means students, teachers, support staff, visitors. Everyone, man!

This is a big deal. Hinojosa’s order flies directly counter to an executive order that Gov. Greg Abbott issued that prohibits school districts from taking any additional measures to fight the virus.

I am going to stand with the superintendent on this one.

Hinojosa is taking an important step to protect the individuals for whom he must care. He said today that he realizes he is in for a fight. Gov. Abbott won’t like being told to stick his executive order where the sun don’t shine. My response? Too … damn … bad!

Might there be more independent school districts to follow suit. I surely hope so. As the grandfather of one third-grader who attends school in the Allen ISD, I want to implore that district’s administration to show the courage being exhibited in Dallas to order everyone to mask up — at least temporarily.

And spare me the crap/trash/nonsense about infringing on “individual rights.”

The ultimate end to this pandemic and the variants it has spawned surely are the vaccines. However, we can take other preventative measures — such as masking and maintaining our social distance — to stem the outbreak.

If we are not going to do so individually, then I have zero problem — none at all — with those who care for my loved one during the school day to take the steps they need to take to protect her.