Monthly Archives: May 2022

national news

Immigration reform … anyone?

President Biden’s decision to repeal a Trump administration policy designed to curb immigration into the country in the midst of a pandemic is being met with opposition from both sides of the great divide.

Title 42 aims to block immigrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. while a pandemic is raging. Biden decided to yank it, but he is getting pounded for it. I believe he acted prematurely.

The point of this particular post, though, is how the overarching need for immigration reform is being trampled by issues of the moment.

There needs to be comprehensive, thorough and complete reform of our immigration system. George W. Bush sought it during his two terms as president, as did Barack Obama during his two terms. Donald Trump? He didn’t go there.

Joe Biden has talked openly about reforming the system, making it easier for immigrants to seek asylum if they are looking for refuge from oppression. Now he has muddied it all up by repealing Title 42, a policy pushed onto the books when the pandemic began sickening and killing human beings all around the world.

The so-called Dreamers need protection from deportation. These are immigrants brought here illegally as children by their parents. They have grown up, come of age in this country — the only country they have known! Many of them face deportation because our immigration policy simply doesn’t allow for humanity in treating these individuals as U.S. residents.

The Trump administration also mucked things up by separating children from their parents at the border in yet another inhumane demonstration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials got pilloried for their handling of the separation matter, drawing criticism from those seeking to dismantle ICE. That’s a bad call. ICE needs to be mended, not ended.

Immigration reform, sadly, is one of those issues being buried by the headlines of the moment, namely the Ukraine War and the critical shortage of baby formula.

We live in a nation founded by immigrants. It long has functioned under an immigrant-friendly policy. We need a return to the philosophy our founders used to create this great nation.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news, national news

Now it’s Trump vs. Pence

A weird political back story is being pushed to the forefront on the eve of the Georgia Republican Party primary election.

Donald J. Trump endorsed former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s effort to win the party’s gubernatorial nomination. Former Vice President Mike Pence endorsed Gov. Brian Kemp’s bid for re-election.

The smart money at this moment says that Kemp is going to roll to an easy victory over Perdue. Which means that Pence is going to trample Trump in the fight for whose candidate gets Republican voters’ nod.

Trump vs. Pence, therefore, is going to end in a technical knockout — for the former VP … and possible rival to Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

This is really rich, man.

Trump got angry with Kemp because the governor wouldn’t buckle under Trump’s pressure to “find” enough votes to turn the state’s electoral result from Joe Biden’s column to Trump’s. So now the ex-POTUS is backing Perdue … sort of. You see, he now has washed his hands of Perdue’s bid because the ex-senator is trailing so badly that Trump doesn’t want to be associated with the losing candidate.

All Gov. Kemp did in the wake of the 2020 election was follow the law. He refused to pressure the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensberger, to do Trump’s bidding. Trump doesn’t believe in the rule of law; he believes instead in the “rule of keeping himself in power.”

If my voice mattered in Georgia — which, of course, it doesn’t — I would be pulling for Mike Pence’s guy over the dipsh** Donald Trump has endorsed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

How do we measure Kim’s ‘sincerity’?

President Biden has laid out a fascinating pre-condition were he and North Korea’s tinhorn dictator Kim Jong Un ever were to meet face to face.

Biden said Kim must demonstrate that he is “sincere” about talks with the United States. Well … that seems to rule out any such bilateral meeting any time before the next Ice Age.

Kim Jong Un met with Donald Trump a couple of times during Trump’s term in office. I don’t recall the POTUS laying out any such pre-meeting requirement. Instead, he spoke publicly of the “love letters” he and Kim exchanged. It sounded a tad kinky, if you want my take on it.

Joe Biden isn’t inclined to shake Kim Jong Un’s hand without first getting some assurances that I do not believe Kim is capable of delivering.

No one on this side of the ideological divide can possibly trust a single thing that Kim ever would say. The guy has killed members of his own family; his people are starving while he pours billions of dollars into nuclear weapons.

Can Kim Jong Un be trusted? Nope. Thus, President Biden would be wise to keep his distance.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

I apologize, Mitt

Mitt Romney appears to have earned a worldwide apology from those of us who once scoffed at a notion he put forth while he was running for president of the United States in 2012.

A decade ago, the junior U.S. senator from Utah said Russia posed the “greatest geopolitical threat” to the United States. President Barack Obama led the snickering and tittering — and the ridicule — of the Republican presidential nominee’s assertion. I joined in the laughter.

Well, guess what. It turns out Romney was correct.

Russia has launched an unprovoked war with Ukraine, helping plunge the world into utter chaos.

To be clear, I don’t recall that Romney foresaw what the world is witnessing when he made those Russia remarks during the heat of a presidential campaign. He offered a statement that has borne much more truth than we imagined in the moment a decade ago.

Now the senator is saying that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ought to consider responding militarily if Russia uses tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine. A full-throated NATO response would pulverize Russia, Romney said.

Am I going to laugh now at such a suggestion coming from Sen. Mitt Romney? Hardly.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Needing a blog boost

Honest to goodness, I don’t like writing about my blog, so I’ll be brief with this timid call for a little help.

High Plains Blogger’s readership is dropping off, or so it appears. I distribute it through a number of social media platforms and I will do so with this brief post.

I just want to get the word out that your friendly blogger — that’s me, of course — is still in the game and is still commenting on matters of assorted and eclectic interests.

High Plains Blogger is mainly a political blog. I have my critics; others read it and offer me the proverbial high five.

I’m just not getting the volume of hits I used to get. I hope I am not boring readers. I’ll do better to keep it lively. Meantime, if you’re so inclined, I will thank you in advance for sharing these musings.

With that, I bid you good night.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Hoping public hearings bring movement

Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House of Representatives 1/6 select committee, is going to convene a series of public hearings in early June.

The aim is to reveal to the public the nuts and bolts of what committee members have been hearing in private for seemingly forever. They have heard testimony about how Donald J. Trump orchestrated efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — the one that Trump lost to Joe Biden. They have heard how Trump watched the insurrection unfold on Capitol Hill and did not a damn thing to stop it for more than three hours.

We’re going to hear from witnesses who have first-hand knowledge of what Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did about it.

Will any of this move the needle? Will it swing public opinion dramatically in favor of what the panel is seeking to do, which is to determine who is responsible for that riot and how to prevent such a thing from ever recurring.

I know this much: I intend to watch as much of it as I can from the comfort of my North Texas man cave.

I doubt my mind will change, if you get my drift. Still, it’s going to make for some compelling political drama.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Hoping for return of two-party struggle

There once was a time when I first arrived in Texas — nearly four decades ago — when I lamented how the overpowering strength of the Democratic Party in the region where I lived and worked had lessened the quality of political debate.

I believed at the time of my arrival in the Golden Triangle in early 1984 that Democrats took that region for granted. I don’t recall a lot of creative or critical thinking among the local pols. Their appeal to the union-dominated work force in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange was rock solid.

Over time, and it didn’t take that many years, Republicans began making headway into the roster of elected offices in the Golden Triangle. Indeed, the entire state was tilting toward the Republican Party.

The GOP picked off statewide offices one at a time. The last Democrat to hold a statewide office was John Sharp, the comptroller of public accounts. Sharp left that office in 1998.

It’s been a Republican show ever since. The GOP holds every single constitutional office in Texas. The Republican grip has been ironclad.

I find myself wishing the same thing I discovered upon my arrival in Texas nearly 40 years ago. I want a return to two-party governance, with both parties flexing muscles and challenging the other side to defend their positions with vigor.

There’s a bit of a difference, though, between the GOP dominance today and the Democrats’ former dominance. The Republican Party has gone bonkers. I recall that Democrats in the good old days at least governed with a semblance of humanity and common sense. The 21st-century Republican Party adheres to that phony populism espoused by the carnival barker who managed to get elected president in 2016.

Accordingly, the quality of political debate in Texas has swirled down the drain just as it has in many other parts of the country.

Is this the year that Democrats might peel off an elected office or two held by Republicans seemingly since The Flood? I won’t make that prediction.

I merely am going to lament the absence of a vigorous two-party governing system in the state I now call home. May the Democratic Party find its voice … and I hope it is soon.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Let’s wait on the political obit

Before we start dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on President Biden’s political obituary in the wake of the upcoming midterm election, let’s revisit a couple of recent historical events … hmm?

President Clinton won election in 1992. The midterm election occurred in 1994 and you know what happened. Republicans took control of both congressional chambers for the first time in 40 years. They flipped dozens of House seats. Newt Gingrich became speaker.

What happened in the 1996 presidential election? Clinton won re-election in an Electoral College landslide.

OK, now let’s look quickly at what occurred in 2010. President Obama took office after the 2008 election. He had a Democratic Party majority in Congress. Then the 2010 midterm occurred. Republicans delivered what Obama called a “shellacking.” The GOP took control of Congress.

Oh, but wait! The 2012 election ended with President Obama winning re-election. The margin for Obama wasn’t as impressive as the victory scored by President Clinton.

So here we are today. President Biden and Democrats are facing strong headwinds moving toward this year’s midterm election. Republicans are poised to seize control of both congressional chambers. If they do, they will follow historical precedent.

Is that the end of the line for Joe Biden? Nope, not even …

You see, today’s GOP is now populated by election deniers, followers of the Big Lie fomented by the Liar in Chief. The GOP is fully capable of messing up what the voters appear ready to grant them, which is control of the legislative branch of government.

Given the quality of the rhetoric coming from the cultist who leads the Republican Party and the blind fealty to his blathering that his followers exhibit, I am betting President Biden and the Democrats won’t surrender anything.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Where is John Kerry?

President Biden made quite a show of announcing the appointment of John Kerry as the administration’s special envoy specializing in climate change. Do you recall it? Of course you do!

Kerry served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, ran for president in 2004, served as secretary of state during Barack Obama’s second presidential term. He fought for his country during the Vietnam War and has been an eloquent spokesman for whatever cause piques his fancy.

Biden wanted to bring him back into public life and gave him a special title with an extra-special responsibility: chief envoy representing our nation in the fight to combat the existential threat posed by climate change.

But, wait! He’s vanished. I think he has anyway.

Yes, I get that the Ukraine War has eclipsed a lot of issues. We have this inflationary fight erupting. Fossil fuel prices are skyrocketing, which to my way of thinking only elevates the importance of climate-change initiatives that Kerry should be promoting, pushing and arguing.

Joe Biden was right to declare climate change a key threat to our national security and our way of life. He wants to promote green energy initiatives. John Kerry is an important worldwide figure to make the case around the world.

But … dammit! We need to keep this guy front and center!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news

Donald Trump: frontrunner

Donald J. Trump is demonstrating yet another trait I find loathsome … imagine that, if you can.

He is a frontrunner, a guy who latches onto candidates he perceives as winners. He’ll endorse ’em, but then is likely to abandon ’em if they prove to be — to borrow a term — losers.

Trump once stood foursquare behind former U.S. Sen. David Perdue of Georgia. He endorsed Perdue’s bid for Georgia governor. Then it became clear that the incumbent Republican, Brian Kemp, is going to wipe Perdue out in the Republican primary set for next Tuesday.

Now the ex-POTUS has tossed Perdue aside, just as he did in neighboring Alabama. You see, decided to back Rep. Mo Brooks in the race for the Senate seat being vacated by Richard Shelby.

Trump had all kinds of glowing platitudes to throw at Brooks. Then the congressman’s political fortunes faltered. What did Trump do then? He tossed Brooks into the crapper.

All this just goes to show the fickleness of a Donald Trump endorsement for public office … which is another way of saying it ain’t worth a damn!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com