Monthly Archives: May 2022

International news

Yep, Biden took the call

Franklin Foer has smashed a myth about President Biden, that the president is too weak and not up to the myriad tasks that befall a POTUS at any hour of the day … or night.

Foer, writing an essay in The Atlantic, points out quite vividly that Joe Biden “answered the call” that came to him around 3 a.m.

He writes about the time Hillary Clinton sought to exploit 2008 presidential campaign rival Barack Obama’s inexperience with an ad that wondered whether the future president would be able to “answer the call.” Well, he did answer the call, just as Joe Biden is doing now.

Biden Answered the 3 a.m. Call – The Atlantic

As his article in The Atlantic noted about Biden’s response to the Ukraine War: Joe Biden hasn’t received the full credit he deserves for his statecraft during this crisis, because he has pursued a policy of self-effacement. Rather than touting his accomplishments in mobilizing a unified global response to the invasion, he has portrayed the stringent sanctions as the triumph of an alliance. By carefully limiting his own public role—and letting France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz take turns as the lead faces of NATO—he has left Vladimir Putin with little opportunity to portray the conflict as a standoff with the United States, a narrative that the Russian leader would clearly prefer. He’s shown how to wield American leadership in the face of deep European ambivalence about its exercise.

The Trumpkins among us keep telling us that Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine were The Donald still in the White House. Hmm. Probably not. Likely because The Donald would have looked the other way while Putin sought to bring neighboring states to heel.

Joe Biden has performed masterfully in applying his diplomatic skill and experience to produce a united front throughout Europe against the unprovoked, illegal, immoral invasion of Ukraine.

To suggest that the president of the United States has failed in responding to an urgent world crisis is to talk utter trash.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Don’t pack SCOTUS!

The infamous Roe v. Wade draft opinion that leaked out of the Supreme Court has prompted progressives to call for a SCOTUS “reform” that would add justices to the nine-justice panel.

Let’s take a breath for a moment.

I, too, am appalled at what the draft opinion suggests, that the landmark abortion legalization ruling is likely to be overturned in a formal court opinion to be issued in June or July.

However, I happen to oppose the idea of packing the nation’s highest court more justices. It is a knee-jerk reaction that, in truth, isn’t likely to be approved by the current Congress.

President Franklin Roosevelt floated the idea in the 1930s. Court packing was as unpopular then as it appears to be now.

I am a believer in precedent. Overturning Roe would violate the court’s policy of letting “settled law” stand. Moreover, it would constitute judicial activism that conservatives say they oppose.

But do we really want to take a drastic step such as the one being pitched now to expand the ranks of the SCOTUS? Those who want to pack the court point to the possibility that other rulings — such as the decision to allow same-sex marriage — might be wiped out.

A more rational approach would be to elect congressmen and women more to the liking of those who are appalled at the draft opinion. Over time, there could be sufficient pressure applied to Congress and to the courts to keep their mitts off issues that should be allowed to stand as they were delivered.

Pack the court? Now? No.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

military news, national news

Esper tells surprising truth

Mark Esper, the latest member of the Donald Trump Cabinet to spill the beans on the chaos within the White House during Trump’s term, has given a surprisingly candid answer to a direct question.

He told “60 Minutes” about the thought Trump expressed about launching missiles in Mexico to stop drug traffickers. He said he pushed back on the notion that the POTUS was suggesting.

Why didn’t he reveal then, in real time what Trump was pondering, came the question from correspondent Norah O’Donnell.

“I was afraid I would get fired,” Esper said, adding that there was “no guarantee” that Trump would bring in a blind loyalist to succeed him, adding that then the nation would be in an even worse mess.

Hmm. Wow! Well stated, Mr. Defense Secretary.

Trump eventually did fire Esper because of the defense boss’s disagreement over invoking the Insurrection Act in response to D.C. protests over the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis. Esper said White House chief of staff Mark Meadows him Trump was unhappy with him because he was insufficiently loyal to Trump.

Esper said he responded, “I take my oath to the Constitution, not to a man.”

And yet … there remain voters out here who think it’s OK for a POTUS to demand personal loyalty over the oath all of them — even the president himself — take when they serve the public.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Turnout still pitiful

Eleven percent! I hope Princeton voters will pay attention to what happened down the highway over this weekend.

That was the turnout of registered voters in Farmersville, Texas, for a citywide election to determine three seats on the City Council and — this is critical — to determine the fate of a proposal to adopt a home-rule charter for the city.

With that, 11% of the city’s registered voters managed to drag themselves to the polls to cast their votes.

I am terribly dissatisfied with the turnout. Granted, the results of the balloting are a different matter. I will speak specifically of the home-rule charter result.

That is a big fu**ing deal, to borrow a quote from the current president of the United States who muttered it while serving as VP as Congress approved the Affordable Care Act.

The home-rule charter passed with a 174-59 vote in favor of the proposal. By my calculation, that presents an 11.3% turnout of registered votes. That miserable turnout prompts me to ask: What in the name of voter apathy does a city have to do get people interested enough to vote on a matter as critical as this?

State law required the city to distribute copies of the proposed home-rule charter to every registered voter in Farmersville. City Secretary Tabatha Monk did as she was instructed. With the help of Collin County’s election office, she determined the voter count in the city stood at 2,122.

Every registered voter in Farmersville received a copy of the document. I have tried on this blog to explain the significance of a city being able to set its own rules without having to rely on state statutes. I guess few of our friends in Farmersville were paying attention.

Local elections allow voters to make decisions on those who set policies that have a direct impact on our lives. Strangely — and shamefully — these local elections almost always seem to produce the kind of turnouts we saw on Saturday down the road in Farmersville.

I now must wonder what my neighbors in Princeton will do when they get the chance to vote on a home-rule charter. It might be later this year, or it could be in the spring of 2023. The city is working now on a document to present to voters. We’ll all get copies of the charter when it’s ready to present.

I will vote on it. As I said about the Farmersville charter, it’s a really big … deal!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Mom was dealt a horrible hand

This beautiful young woman you see on this blog post is my Mom.

I don’t know precisely when this picture was taken, but I’ll guess she was in her early 20s. So, I reckon it was shot about the time she and Dad got married in August 1946.

We’re all going to celebrate Mother’s Day. I will celebrate Mom’s time on this good Earth for giving life to me and my two sisters, but to be honest, it’s a bittersweet remembrance.

You see, Mom was dealt about as bad a hand as anyone could receive. She died in September 1984 of Alzheimer’s disease complications. Mom was 61 years of age.

Sixty-one! Now, to those who have undergone this kind of familial misery, you understand that Alzheimer’s usually takes years to claim its victims. That means Mom exhibited symptoms long before she passed away.

We weren’t wise enough at the time to understand what was afflicting Mom. We all noticed changes in her behavior. We were slow on the uptake, I suppose, to get her diagnosed by a neurologist. We did that in early 1980. Then we got the news: There is no cure for the disease and the only way to determine whether anyone has it is through an autopsy. The doc simply ruled out every possible condition that could cause her behavior change.

Mom was denied the chance to grow old. I cannot prove this, but I will rely on my hunch and my knowledge of the kind of young woman became in determining that she would have aged gracefully and that she would have enjoyed seeing her five grandkids grow into adulthood; she would have relished welcoming her great-grandchildren into this world as well.

They say that life isn’t fair. It damn sure isn’t! One cannot understand why the Good Lord takes some people in such a cruel fashion. He did in this instance and we were left only to wonder why.

Mom deserved better than what she was delivered.

My memories of her will last for as long as I draw breath and with that I want to extend a happy Mother’s Day as far as I can reach to the young woman in the picture.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

Jobs piling up, unemployment low … huh?

The U.S. Labor Department each month gives us a snapshot of where the nation’s economy stands. It comes in the form of its jobs report.

What did the Labor stats show us this month? Oh, that private non-farm employers added 428,000 more Americans to their payrolls and that joblessness remains at 3.6%, or at the same level it stood prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

Still, and this just baffles me to the point of confusion: President Biden keeps getting pilloried because the economy — according to the critics — is “in the tank.”

Is it? Not really. Actually, the economy is humming along fairly well.

Now, I will acknowledge the obvious “elephant in the room,” which would be inflation. I don’t like paying more for eggs, bread, milk, veggies and meat any more than the next red-blooded American. Nor do I like shelling out huge piles of dough for motor fuel. Is that totally within the president’s control? No. It isn’t even close.

We have this war erupting in Ukraine, which produces a lot of the world’s grain. Russian oil has been all but cut off from the rest of the world. Demand for all of that is high; supply is low. Hmm. High demand and low supply? What does that mean? We pay more for goods and commodities.

Biden is trying to help stem the rise in fuel prices by ordering the tapping of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He wants the SPR to ship 1 million barrels of crude oil each day for six months to help boost the supply of oil.

I am not going to criticize the president’s handling of the economy. He was dealt a bad hand when he took office in January 2021. The pandemic crippled the so-called “supply chain.” We are working our way through that crisis.

Meanwhile, we keep adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month and the unemployment rate remains just about at rock bottom.

What in the name of realism is wrong with that?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Getting used to new wheels

Our shakedown cruise hauling a down-sized recreational vehicle has taught me some lessons.

We traded in our 29-foot fifth wheel for a shiny new 21-foot travel trailer. We like the new unit … a lot! Even while struggling just a bit with constrained space in the new trailer, we are committed to it and we believe our scaled-down retirement travel itinerary will suit our new wheeled “digs” just fine.

We hauled it to the Texas Hill Country and found out as we motored down some back-road highways that our truck pulls the travel trailer just as easily as it did the fifth wheel.

Oh, but get a load of this: We ran into a “road closed” blockade along Texas Highway 236 near Foot Hood. We had to back the trailer up and turn it around. We were able to do so with much greater ease than we would have been able to do with a much more cumbersome fifth wheel.

We have what they call a “one-butt kitchen” in our trailer. We have fewer square feet of storage space. We will need to figure out what goes with us on the road and what stays home. The good news for me is that I married to an expert in making these key decisions. Therefore, I will defer to her … mostly.

The even better news is that our retirement journey is still heading for the open road. Just not as lengthy a stretch of road, but we’ll still be venturing our way further into retirement.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Esper joins the Trump tell-all brigade

You and I now may add former Defense Secretary Mark Esper to the list of chumps who have come clean on what it was like serving under the guidance of the most imbecilic individual ever elected to the nation’s highest office.

Esper writes in a forthcoming book that Donald J. Trump actually talked out loud and in the presence of others about whether he could fire missiles into Mexico to stop the drug traffickers … and then find a way to deny that he did it!

Trump ended up firing Esper as defense boss near the end of Trump’s term in the White House. I guess he might’ve gotten tired of Esper resisting such nutty notions coming from the man masquerading as our commander in chief.

My goodness, how many more of these revelations is it going to take to sink into the thick, gullible, vacuous skulls of the Trumpkins who continue to give this idiot a pass?

Former Attorney General William Barr has written that Trump refused to accept the fact that he lost the 2020 election. There have been countless other tales told about Trump’s obsession with voter fraud that did not exist, of his utter lack of attention to anything resembling the details of public policy.

The hits just keep coming. Ain’t it fun?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Mother Neff would be proud

MOTHER NEFF STATE PARK, Texas — I have spoken glowingly about the Texas state parks system, its amenities and all the recreational opportunties they offer to retirees … such as my wife and me.

Today, I want to take a brief moment to speak about something you might find weird. Too bad. Here goes anyway.

We came to Mother Neff State Park in Coryell County for a brief outing in our new travel trailer. I had to use a restroom. What I saw when I entered was stunning.

The public restroom was immaculate. As in eat-off-the-floor clean, man.

You don’t need to see a picture of the place to get the idea. Just know that the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is on the job keeping these public facilities suitable for, um … the public!

I took a moment to thank a park ranger who happened to be nearby. He accepted my thanks with gratitude.

Therefore, I want to proclaim that TP&W is worth the investment Texans are making.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Reactions to leak tell us plenty

Could there be a more graphic illustration of the differences between the two major American political parties than their reaction to the leak of a draft opinion regarding the probable fate of Roe v. Wade?

Someone on the U.S. Supreme Court staff likely leaked the document to Politico, which then revealed it to the world. The draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito, suggests the court is ready to overturn the landmark January 1973 ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.

Conservatives have hailed the opinion. Liberals (such as me, your friendly blogger) have condemned it.

The back-story reaction, though, is most telling. Conservatives want the leaker’s head on a platter. It’s the thought that someone would violate the court’s privacy that has the right-wingers all worked up. Liberals, meanwhile, are less concerned about the leak than the contents of the opinion. I’m on the libs’ side.

Of course, I was surprised that it became known via a leaked document. It’s never happened before.

But, geez, there weren’t any national secrets revealed! Indeed, the privacy invasion strikes many of us as ironic, given that the SCOTUS’s conservative majority doesn’t seem at all concerned about a woman’s privacy in determining whether to end a pregnancy. But leak a draft document? The world is coming to an end!

I realize this is just one example of the chasm that divides the two major parties. It’s just too damn bizarre to ignore.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com