Monthly Archives: May 2022

media news

WH reporters’ dinner is back

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This much came through as I watched President Biden do a brief comic riff from the podium at the newly reinstated White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

It is that he ain’t no Barack Obama, one of his predecessors whose comic timing is good enough for the former POTUS to take on the road.

Still, it was good to see Joe Biden laughing at himself along with the insults hurled at others in the room and around the country.

The coronavirus pandemic nixed the previous two WH reporters’ dinners. Biden’s immediate predecessor in the White House labeled the media the “enemy of the people,” so there would be no way on God’s good Earth he would — or could — appear before those he despised. That means Biden was the first president to appear at this event in six years.

The event that began during the Calvin Coolidge administration has been set aside for Washington to take a light-hearted look at itself and to salute and honor the journalists who report the news to the world. Particularly poignant Saturday night was the tribute to journalists who have died covering the news, reminding us that even the messengers of world events can become victims of those events.

Some, moreover, have been held captive for years. Why? Because they reported the truth.

OK, I started this blog by saying that Joe Biden isn’t as clever with the quip as Barack Obama. I am going to assign him an “A” grade nonetheless for being a thick-skinned good sport during a troubled time. There is nothing wrong with that.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Political toxicity spreads

Political toxicity can be contagious, in that when one government body becomes infected by it the ailment spreads to other government bodies.

Case in point: The Texas Legislature — in its not-too-distant past — was hailed as a place where Democrats and Republicans found common ground frequently. Our Legislature could craft laws with wide support on both sides of the aisle.

We once had a governor, George W. Bush, who made bipartisanship a sort of political art form. The Republican governor worked hand-in-glove with two key Democratic legislative leaders: Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and House Speaker Pete Laney.

There was little toxicity in the mid- to late 1990s in Austin.

These days? Not so serene, folks. Congress has become a den of vipers, with Democrats and Republicans hating each other’s guts. The Texas Legislature isn’t much of an improvement. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick squabbles with fellow Republicans in the state Senate and House members look for ways to undermine the work of Speaker Dade Phelan.

There isn’t a lot of bipartisan fellowship to be found in Austin any more than we can find it in Washington. The toxic environment we have come to scorn in D.C. has spread, sadly, to the halls of the Texas State Capitol.

It makes me so sad.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Can there be a more frightening outcome?

Believe me, please, when I say that I do not scare easily. It takes a lot to rattle this old man, a guy who’s been shelled by enemy troops, flown over an erupting volcano and been catapulted off the deck of a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Thus, when I say something gives me the willies, know that it’s for real. I can think of nothing more frightening to our cherished American system of representative democracy than to see Donald J. Trump return to within spitting distance of the White House.

I want to add an important caveat to this notion, which is that I remain highly dubious that the former POTUS is going to run for the office in 2024. I will not swallow the swill being offered by pundits who contend that at this moment he is frontrunner for the Republican Party presidential nomination.

I also want to point out that Trump’s fundamental message is the same as it was when Joe Biden thumped his ass in the 2020 election: the election was stolen. Dammit to hell! It wasn’t! President Biden was elected fairly, squarely and legally. The boring message that Trump keeps delivering is beginning to fall on an increasing number of GOP deaf ears.

For the United States to return to the days of pathological lying, of incompetence at every level of the executive branch of government, of a president who is scorned and ridiculed by our nation’s allies and seeks to cozy up to a bully who has been committing crimes against humanity in his illegal Ukraine War signals a collective depravity I didn’t think could exist in this great nation.

We’re going to have our midterm election soon. Then we’ll start digesting news about the GOP field that will take shape for the next presidential contest. As the Almighty is my witness, I cannot fathom how our great nation could allow itself to be sucked into the abyss that awaits were it to bring back the Trump Era.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com