Monthly Archives: October 2021

national news

Say it ain’t gonna happen

My ol’ trick knee has let me down too many times for me to count.

I used to rely on it to tell me about political trends. It throbbed most recently just prior to my suggesting that Donald J. Trump wouldn’t dare run for POTUS in 2024.

Part of me wishes my trick knee would restore its magic. Another part of me suggests it has let me down one more time.

I’m going to stay the course, though, at least until the former Nitwit in Chief sends us all a clear message that he’s in … again!

If so, then God help us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

The Big Lie must die

I had hoped — seriously, I did — that the results of the phony Arizona “audit” of the 2020 election would signal an end to The Big Lie that Donald J. Trump keeps repeating.

That the election was “stolen” from him. It wasn’t.

I must be a shmuck. It’s only gotten even more preposterous.

Indeed, the phony audit conducted by Cyber Ninjas confirmed President Biden’s victory in Arizona. Indeed, Biden collected a few more votes than before the Cyber Ninjas started their forensic “audit” of ballots cast in Maricopa County.

That’s the end of it? Hardly. The 45th POTUS, the former Dipsh** in Chief, called for a forensic audit in Texas, which he won in the 2020 election. He continues to insist that The Big Lie is the big truth. He continues to denigrate our governmental process. It denigrates our local elections officials who worked tirelessly prior to the 2020 election to ensure its fairness, legality, its accuracy and the integrity of its result.

Think about this for a moment. A president who took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution has done everything he can to damage it. He incited a riot, an insurrection that sought to overturn the results of that election. POTUS 45 has yet to acknowledge publicly that he lost the election.

The most maddening aspect of this is that this clown continues to rally supporters who actually believe The Big Lie, that the election was so corrupt that President Biden couldn’t possibly have been elected fairly.

Their proof? The evidence? They don’t have any. The rely solely on the bellowing of the former POTUS, the king of sore losers, the guy who actually said after the Cyber Ninjas released the findings of their phony Arizona audit that he actually “won” the election.

The Big Lie needs to die.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Debt or investment?

1 Comment

One man’s piling onto the national debt is another man’s “investment in the future.”

So it goes with the debate over Build Back Better, which is President Biden’s domestic spending initiative that is hung up in wrangling between congressional Democrats and Republicans and, yes, even between factions within the Democratic Party.

Whether it’s a $3.5 trillion spending package over 10 years or a $1.5 trillion package, it’s a lot of money.

What is so damn troubling, though, is that the GOP caucus is now worried about the national debt. It wasn’t worried one little bit about it when Donald Trump pitched an idea about cutting taxes for rich people, depriving the government of revenue it could “invest” in programs to help the rest of us. Now, though, it is all hung up on the debt and the cost of the infrastructure package that Biden and some within the Democratic caucus want.

Yeah, I know. It’s politics. That’s a family member of mine’s favorite rejoinder. It’s his fallback position when he can’t find any justification for the nonsense being bandied about.

It still stinks, man.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Watch out, social media!

Social media can be full of trickery, blind spots and occasional booby traps … which is why I like to use social media platforms primarily to convey thoughts I write on High Plains Blogger.

I kind of ran into one of those booby traps today with a post I shared on a private neighborhood group on Facebook.

The post had to do with an upcoming election in Princeton, Texas, where I live. The city wants to stage an election in November that will ask voters for permission to form a home-rule charter commission to draft a charter for the city to govern itself.

I wanted to share it on a neighborhood group to which my wife and I belong. I submitted the blog post, but it got kicked out. It was rejected by Facebook. The “administrator” of the group where I sent the item said the issue is publishing items on multiple social media platforms.

Hmm. No sweat. Now I hear that Facebook might be monkeying around a bit too liberally with social media content. It is “censoring” some items, one of my “neighbors” wrote.

Whatever. We live now in an era where social media has emerged as a primary source of information for millions of Americans. I have friends and members of my family to rely on social media to give them the “news.” The problem I see with that option is that they aren’t getting “news” the way I understand the term; they are hearing opinions on the news and if you agree with the slant, you listen some more; but if you disagree with it, well, you hit the road.

This the new age in media, my friends. It isn’t pretty. It is, as the late Walter Cronkite would tell us, “the way it is.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

No support for Trump acolytes

I said the other day I had no intention of buying Stephanie Grisham’s book on the Donald Trump administration.

Here is why. I do not want to spend any of my money to fatten the wallets of the 45th president’s administrative aides. Grisham, sad to say, fits into that category.

She served as communication director and press secretary for the White House; she also served as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff. She has written a book with some pretty stunning accounts of what she saw at the White House. She writes about the president’s explosive temper, discloses the Secret Service code name for the first lady and tells of how first daughter Ivanka Trump talked Daddy into delivering a COVID-19 speech on national TV that went quite badly.

That’s all I need to hear from her or from any of the other goofballs who worked for the ex-POTUS.

There you have it. I’m out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Both sides need to talk … to each other

Fairness dictates that I make this complaint of Democratic politicians just as I did of Republican politicians during the previous presidential administration.

I want Democrats to talk to Republicans and I am terribly distressed that they aren’t reaching to the other side of the great divide.

Think back to the term of Donald J. Trump. The Republican president chose to speak only to fellow Rs on Capitol Hill. He allowed the GOP caucus to craft that tax cut bill that favored rich folks. Democrats wanted no part of the deal. The then-POTUS didn’t reach out to them. He stiffed ’em!

That guy is gone. The new president, Joe Biden, has resorted to talking mainly to Democrats on his Build Back Better agenda. Indeed, GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has made his point clear: Ain’t no way the Republicans are going to support anything that comes from a Democratic president. President Biden figures: What the hell is the point in talking to them?

Well, I believe he should. Just as I believe that his predecessor should have talked to Democrats in search of common ground.

I have spoken of late about “good government.” This is how government ought to work. Compromise is not a four-letter word.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

entertainment news

RIP, Tommy Kirk

The news that Tommy Kirk died the other day at age 79 filled me with a sense of irony and, yes, sadness.

I grew up with Tommy Kirk appearing on my TV screen. He was one of the child stars employed by the Disney company. He was a Mousketeer. He appeared in TV dramas along with other fan favorites. His was as much of a household name as, say, Annette Funicello.

Tommy Kirk also was a gay performer. He “came out” as a teenager. The price he paid for his honesty? Disney fired him essentially on the spot. Ain’t no way the entertainment giant was going to allow a gay youngster perform before audiences comprising children.

It didn’t matter, of course, that Kirk didn’t portray gay characters. Not ever! To borrow a phrase, Kirk played it straight.

That was then. The Disney Corporation has traveled many symbolic miles since that dark time. It now has Gay Pride Days at its theme parks, namely at Disneyland and at Walt Disney World.

I am glad to see the company has opened its corporate heart and it seeks to understand that one’s sexual orientation is not merely a matter of choice. It is who people are. Period. Full stop.

As for Tommy Kirk, well, he paid the price for his employers’ lack of understanding back then. May he rest in peace.

I just want to thank him for the memories he gave me as a youngster who laughed and cried at the performances he delivered.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Good government’ isn’t pretty

2 Comments

As a good government progressive, I find this discussion over Build Back Better, the debt ceiling and ways to avoid a government shutdown an example of just how ugly good government can be.

Man, it is damn ugly.

But I will stand by my belief that good government, which is the government of the possible, must be ugly in order to get anything done.

Indeed, the older I get the less ideological I become. I once was a flaming liberal. I took a two-year turn in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s, went to war for my country, came home as confused about that war as I was when I arrived, then got involved in presidential politics. I campaigned in my home state of Oregon for George McGovern in 1972. He lost big … remember?

Time went on. I grew up a bit more. We’re now watching the progressive wing of the Democratic Party battle with the more moderate wing. The progressives have made some good points about wanting to spend a lot more money than the moderates want to spend. However, I am going to await the end of this haggling to see how it plays out.

Thus, we are watching how good government might look ugly.

In reality, I believe it will produce a thing of beauty at the end.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Some perspective, eh?

2 Comments

A certain amount of context has been tossed aside in the discussion over whether to approve President Biden’s plan to “Build Back Better.”

We have become fixated on the number: 3.5 trillion … as in dollars.

What has become tossed aside is that the number that Biden and congressional progressives want would cover a 10-year period.

So, that figures to be a $350 billion expenditure annually to do a number of things: improve roads and bridges; modernize air travel; develop ship channels; improve Internet broadband service.

Here’s some more perspective. The United States of America boasts a $20 trillion annual economy, which suggests to me that $350 billion each year is like so much spittle in the proverbial bucket.

Congressional Republicans and some moderate congressional Democrats are wringing their hands over the amount of money that progressives want to spend. Again, I have to wonder: Why?

If the plan is to spread this expense out over a 10-year span of time, why are we quibbling over the total figure that in the grand scheme seems less relevant when you add some needed context to the discussion?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Patriots? Phooey!

Life is full of uncertainty. However, of this I am totally, unequivocally certain: I will go to my grave never understanding how people who take an oath to protect the Constitution and then defy it openly can call themselves “patriots.”

I am referring to the nimrods who continue to adhere to The Big Lie, that the 2020 presidential election was the product of theft, that it was “stolen” from Donald Trump by “deep state” forces that conspired to install Joe Biden in the White House.

These individuals call themselves patriots because they believe they are right and that the rest of us — the majority of Americans — are wrong in our assessment that the most recent presidential election was conducted fairly and legally and ethically.

The 45th POTUS continues to rant and bellow about a theft that never occurred. He drops broad hints about wanting to run again in 2024 to get it all back.

He calls for states to “audit” their returns from the 2020 election. The former Liar in Chief suggests that even after states complete their audits that he still won. He stands before crowds that cheer him on as he recites that utter nonsense.

These are “patriots”? These are Americans who believe in our system of government? These are dipsh**s cannot accept the notion of their guy losing a hotly contested election and then moving on to wage other fights on other issues?

These individuals are not real Americans. Sure, they are citizens of this country. They have the right to express themselves under the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and expression. “Real Americans,” though, are those who live by rules of fair play and accept defeat when it is as obvious as anything they can see.

They are not patriots.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com