Monthly Archives: December 2021

national news

Dole draws tributes from both sides

I am gratified to read the tributes that are pouring in from both sides of the great divide in Washington to honor the life and service of a genuine American hero.

Indeed, “hero” is a word we are hearing in the wake of Robert Dole’s death today at age 98.

Dole was a longtime Republican Senate stalwart, a man who knew how to work across the aisle. He built friendships that transcended whatever political differences he had with his colleagues.

To hear Democratic politicians praise Dole’s service to the country, starting with his combat service during World War II, gives me hope that we might be able someday to bridge the chasm that has turned mere political opponents into enemies.

Lawmakers remember Bob Dole: ‘Bona fide American hero’ | TheHill

Our current lawmakers can take a page from the example that former Sen. Bob Dole set during his long, productive and profoundly distinguished life.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Another hero has departed

A former U.S. senator, presidential and vice-presidential candidate, and World War II hero has left us and the world he leaves behind should mourn its loss forever.

I refer to Robert Dole, the one-time senator from Kansas.

Oh, my. He was a Republican tough guy who emerged from the crucible of world conflict to become eventually a statesman and a man who built solid relationships and friendships across the vast span of the political spectrum.

To be candid about Dole, he leaves behind a complicated legacy.

He was wounded grievously near the end of World War II. He lost the use of his right arm. He rehabilitated himself after the war ended. Dole would run eventually for Congress, ending up in the Senate.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford selected him to run as vice president as Ford sought election to the presidency. During a vice-presidential debate with his friend Sen. Walter Mondale, Dole blurted out a remark about how the nation had suffered during “Democrat wars,” saying that Democratic presidents were on the watch when World Wars I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War all broke out. It was an unfortunate analogy to make.

He snarled at Vice President George H.W. Bush on national TV — against whom he was competing for the 1988 GOP nomination for president — telling Bush to “stop lying about my record.”

Over time, though, Dole’s image softened. He morphed into an elder statesman, an individual to whom other politicians — of both parties — turned for advice and counsel. His good humor replaced the occasionally tart tenor of his comments.

He ran for president in 1996 as the GOP nominee, challenging President Clinton’s re-election effort. I did not vote for Dole. However, I want to stipulate in the strongest terms possible that I never lost my abiding respect for the service and sacrifice he gave to the country we all love.

His brand of politician, I hate saying, is vanishing before our eyes.

May this good and heroic man rest in eternal peace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

We honor a hero

Richard Houston II went to work Friday expecting fully to return home at the end of his shift and be greeted by his wife and three children.

He didn’t get that opportunity.

Houston was a member of the Mesquite (Texas) Police Department, having served the PD for 21 years. He responded to a disturbance call Friday, where he encountered a man with a firearm. The man shot Houston before turning the weapon on himself; the suspect in the shooting is in the hospital suffering critical wounds.

Enough about that nimrod.

Richard Houston died serving the residents of his community. From what I understand, he is just the second officer to die in the line of duty in all of Mesquite’s history.

I have had a longstanding affection for police officers. There is absolutely nothing “routine” about any task they are called upon to perform. Every single day they suit up, strap on their gear and go to work is filled with potential danger every single moment of the shift they work. They are heroes in every sense of the too-often overused — and misused — term.

I want to pay a brief tribute to all the dedicated police officers who, just like Officer Houston, expect to go home to their loved ones at the end of their day. The Mesquite chief of police asks us all to keep Houston’s family in our prayers.

Absolutely. Now and always.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Elect a Nazi? Really?

Ponder this image for just a moment and then ask yourself: Would you want this individual representing you at any level of government?

The picture you see is of Chester Doles, a former Ku Klux Klansman. He is running for a county commissioner’s seat in Georgia. That gesture he is making is a Nazi salute, you know, the “heil Hitler!” thing we see on occasion at Klan rallies or gatherings of assorted white supremacist hate groups.

Doles is running as a Republican. Big surprise, eh?

I am thinking at this very moment of my father, who 80 years ago on Dec. 7 went to the armed forces recruitment center in downtown Portland, Ore., to sign up to fight the tyrants who (a) were trying to take over the world and (b) earlier that day attacked us at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Dad would be enraged at the thought of a dipsh** who flung out a Nazi salute running for any public office in the United States of America.

So should any conscientious American who knows what that salute represents. I get that the idiot ex-KKK’er has every right to express himself that way. It is prescribed in the Constitution that Dad and other patriots fought to protect during World War II.

Still, the expression shown here is as revolting and repulsive as any I can ever imagine.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Dr. Oz for Senate? Ugh!

Mehmet Oz wants to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 2022, which by itself shouldn’t cause any great shakes for little ol’ me out here in North Texas.

Except that it kinda does. I now shall explain.

Oz is a medical doctor. He made a name for himself by becoming a TV personality. His face is everywhere. I cannot testify to the quality of his medical practice; for that matter, I don’t know if he even still has a practice where he examines patients and does doctor-related tasks.

He is running as a Republican. He also is a known skeptic of the COVID-19 virus’s seriousness. He also has been critical of the vaccines that have been released to vaccinate Americans against the virus. That qualifies Oz, in my view, as a certified member of the crackpot cabal of the GOP.

There’s one more thing I want to point out. I believe he borders on medical quackery. Why?

Well, some years ago I heard him shilling for a product that was supposed to cure people of some ailment. Then he dropped the word “miracle” in his description of the product. He said that the results were a “miracle,” meaning that there is no Earthly explanation for why it does what it does.

I am no doctor, but no doctor I ever have heard has used the word “miracle” to describe a scientific procedure. By its very nature, science is predicated on knowledge of cause and effect.

Thus, for a medical doctor to use a term such as “miracle” to describe a medicinal product to my mind smacks of someone who is peddling some version of snake oil.

This clown doesn’t belong in the U.S. Senate.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Parents need to stand trial, too

I had this horrible fear that the search for the parents of the boy who allegedly killed his classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan would be found dead.

They weren’t. Oakland County, Mich., authorities took Mom and Dad into custody and the district attorney has charged them with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the four students.

In keeping with my policy of not identifying the shooters in these mass slaughter events, I am going to avoid naming the parents, too. I believe they are as culpable in the event as the son who stands accused of murdering his fellow students.

I do want to salute the prosecutor for agreeing to level charges against the parents. They allegedly allowed their son to obtain the weapon he used the other day when he opened fire in the school. They, too, will have blood on their hands if they are convicted of the crimes for which prosecutors have charged them.

Yes, this is another dark episode in the ongoing fight against gun violence in this country. It sickens me beyond measure.

When in the name of all that is decent will this carnage end?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hands off of DACA

If I could rule the world for just a little bit of time, I would declare that an executive order issued by a former president of the United States should be left on the books … never to be trifled with ever again.

I refer to President Obama’s order creating the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program. DACA was set up to shield undocumented immigrants from being deported if they were brought here as children by their parents.

President Obama fought to keep DACA in force. He left office in January 2017. His successor, Donald J. Trump, removed the DACA order. Trump then left office in January of this year and his successor, President Biden, restored the DACA order.

So there you have it. It is there, then it’s not, now it’s back again.

I want the order to remain. Why? Because these recipients of DACA privilege know no other nation than the one where they live today. That is the U.S. of A. They are de facto Americans. They are U.S. residents. Many of them have achieved great academic and professional success.

DACA is a humane policy that seeks to give these individuals an avenue to achieve citizenship or permanent resident status.

As Democrats and Republicans battle over immigration, they simply need to remove DACA from the table. These individuals have done nothing illegal other than accompany their parents into this nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

‘No’ on special session!

How many ways do I have to say the same thing? Which is that the COVID-19 vaccine is saving lives, it is preventing infections from the deadly virus and that government entities are within their right to order vaccines for employees and for the public who the government is charged to protect.

Accordingly, I do not want Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to call a fourth special legislative session to enact a statewide ban on future COVID vaccine requirements.

The Texas Tribune reports that a growing number of Texas Legislature Republicans want Abbott to call a special session. They want Gov. Abbott to ask the Legislature to approve a ban on businesses and local governments issuing vaccine mandates.

The Tribune reports: “We know legislators are tired and nobody wants an extended special session,” Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi said in an interview Monday, pointing to states such as Tennessee and Florida that recently passed legislation on vaccine mandates on short timelines.

“While I am happy to be home after three special sessions in Austin,” GOP state Rep. Briscoe Cain wrote, “I would happily return to Austin if called upon to protect the rights of my fellow Texans.”

How about protecting the lives of your “fellow Texans,” Rep. Cain? A state-mandated ban on local COVID restrictions puts your “fellow Texans” in jeopardy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Forgive this rant, but …

I am among the most liberated, enlightened progressive individuals any of you ever will know.

That all said, I want to express a concern I have about this “melting pot” society we embrace as Americans. It involves retailers and the staffers they hire to interact with the public.

I ventured the other day into a major retail outlet in the North Texas city where I live. I was looking for a particular item. I approached a woman wearing the colors of the store I entered and asked her where the item was that I needed to purchase.

She had no idea what I had asked of her. She threw up her hands in that gesture that told me: I do not speak your language; therefore, I am of no help at all.

Oh, my.

I trudged off looking for the item. I found it. I purchased it. I went home.

Here is my point.

We live in a community where English is the predominant language. You can walk into any public place in the United States and the vast majority of those gathered there speak English.

Therefore, I want to make a request of retailers. I believe they should deploy English-speaking staffers to jobs where they must interact with the public. I totally favor hiring non-English speakers, giving them a chance to earn a decent living. I am not going to take the nativist tone we hear too often.

I just want to be able to communicate with individuals who are employed by retail outlets where I do business. Is that too much to ask?

There. My rant is over.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Fauci is no Mengele

Unbelievable.

That’s how I’ll start with this brief post about something I heard on — where else? — Fox News.

Lara Logan, a supposed journalist, compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the notorious Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, who during World War II conducted hideous experiments on Jews. Mengele’s aim was to perfect ghastly treatments and he used Jews as experimental patients. Many of those patients died from the experiments.

Logan somehow, in some fashion, conflated the mask and vaccine mandates enacted to fight to COVID-19 pandemic with what Mengele did during the Second World War.

What makes this idiocy even worse is that the Fox News anchors allowed her to continue that trash rant of hers without challenging what in the name of human decency she was alleging.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/12/02/fauci_im_astounded_fox_news_has_not_disciplined_lara_logan_for_comparing_me_to_mengele.html

You can see it on the link I just attached to this post.

Good Almighty God in heaven! What in the world is it going to take to shut down these hate mongers who do nothing but slander and defame the reputations of learned professionals who are trying to help this nation get through a medical crisis?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com