Monthly Archives: January 2023

medical news

Lessons keep piling up

One of the many lessons I am learning as I cope with my life being turned upside down, inside out and shredded into a million little pieces is that my emotions can run across a gigantic field.

I am alternately frightened, heartened, saddened and joyful. Sometimes those emotions come all come at once.

My wife’s fight against cancer is just beginning. She is tough and resolute. We are hopeful for a positive outcome, and we have ample reason to expect one. Her radiation and chemo treatments begin soon after she leaves the hospital where she has stayed since Dec. 26. Her discharge date is just about at hand.

She is receiving expressions of love and support from far and wide, from people we know and love, from casual acquaintances, even from people she’s never met. That love strengthens me beyond all measure.

And I’ll be candid about one more point. I had said on this blog that I would take a break from commenting on political matters as we commence this fight. I am withdrawing that pledge. Why? Because I feel strong enough emotionally to dish out some criticism and yes, offer some praise when it’s warranted.

The love that is coming our way is delivering that strength.

For that, as well as for the love that is pouring in, I thank you.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

NY GOP finds its … jewels

Well … it turns out the local Republican Party that formerly backed a lying sack of sh** who got elected to Congress has discovered some courage after all.

The Nassau County (N.Y.) GOP promised a “big announcement” today regarding Rep. George Santos. It delivered the goods.

How? By demanding that Santos resign from Congress immediately because he is a serial liar who made up his personal and professional record and pitched it to gullible voters who elected him to the House of Representatives.

Not surprisingly, Santos said he isn’t quitting. He will continue to represent the people who elected him.

My own question from far away is: Which George Santos is going to represent them?

This clown has no business serving in the People’s House, which belongs to you and me, not to a nimrod such as Santos who fabricated his educational background, his professional history, his family history, his personal life and hell, maybe even his dog’s name for all I know.

What we’re going to witness for every single day this disgraceful liar serves in Congress is a parade of reporters pressing him for details on why he lied the way he did and how he can possibly be expected to tell the truth on anything.

Does that remind you of anyone else in politics these days? Hmm. Let me think. Oh yeah, that would be the Serial Liar in Chief who served as president from 2017 until 2021.

I’ll just have to accept this fact: I won’t believe a single word that flies out of George Santos’s mouth. The idea that someone such as this would enact laws that affect all Americans makes me sick.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Santos needs harsh discipline

New York has a new congressman, a young man who lied his way into office, but the state’s Republican Party has uttered nary a peep about the disgraceful conduct of one George Santos.

There is supposed to be a “major announcement” coming from the New York GOP about the liar from the Empire State.

Let’s recall a bit of recent Republican history. GOP honchos in Wyoming decided that former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney’s insistence that Donald Trump broke the law by inciting the 1/6 insurrection was grounds for censure. So, it censured the congresswoman in early 2022. It banished her from the party she served with honor and principle. She then lost her primary battle to a Trump insider.

Fast-forward to the present day. We have another GOP officeholder who lied about his education, his employment history, his family’s background, and even possibly about his sexual orientation. He sold himself to voters as being someone other than who he is. He calls it an “embellishment.” No! It’s a lie. All of it.

What are the Republicans doing about that? Not a damn thing, at least not so far!

Double standard, anyone … anyone?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

COVID vaccine: political weapon

Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the football field during the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals contest the other evening has prompted a disgusting and disgraceful display of politicization I didn’t believe was possible.

Hamlin is now released from the hospital and is home in Buffalo continuing his recovery from the frightening moment when he suffered a heart attack after tackling a Bengals player in the first quarter of a game that was suspended and eventually canceled by the National Football League.

Now comes word from some right-wing commentators and a Republican U.S. senator from Texas that Hamlin’s collapse might have been spurred by the COVID-19 virus vaccine.

What an utterly disgraceful turn!

The senator was Ted Cruz, who retweeted a message that came from actor Kevin Sorbo questioning the circumstance surrounding Hamlin’s collapse. Cruz took the tweet down. U.S. Rep. Collin Allred, a Dallas Democrat — and a former pro football player — called Cruz’s politicization of the Hamlin incident a “new low, even for Ted Cruz.”

This kind of second-guessing, grandstanding and hideous conjecture from the cheap seats simply illustrates the coarsening of our society.

It has no place … except in the gutter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Not very hospitable … governor

Greg Abbott has delivered a gut punch to the notion that Texas is a hospitable place to visit, even for those who might have political disagreements with the individual who serves as its governor.

Gov. Abbott greeted President Biden the other day in West Texas as the president came to take a look at the immigrant crisis along our border with Mexico.

What did Abbott do upon shaking Biden’s hand? He handed him a shi**y note in which he blamed the Biden administration for the crisis, demanding that he do something to end it and suggesting that the president wasn’t doing the job to which he was elected.

Well …

I get that Abbott is angry that it took Biden so long to see the state’s border with Mexico. The president has earned much of the criticism he is getting for his perceived apathy toward the matter.

But, c’mon, man! Abbott is showing his partisan stripes when he chastises the president so openly and in full public view.

He could have written something, like: Thank you for coming, Mr. President. We know you care about the border crisis we are facing here. Accordingly, I am willing to work with you — hand in glove, shoulder to shoulder — to repair the problems that are causing so much grief here. We just need more involvement from the federal government.

Abbott didn’t do that. Instead, he wrote: “All of this is happening because you have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws.”

Many of us believe that Abbott is playing hardball politics when cooperation and the search for common ground would be in order.

Someone would do well to whisper in Abbott’s ear this truth: The federal government needs a signal that you are on the same team as the president of all 50 United States of America.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Social media: celebrity makers

Social media have this way of making me crazy, as in they tend to make celebrities out of politicians who in another line of work would be relegated to sitting on stools with dunce caps on their noggins.

Consider, if you will, the current crop of Republicans serving in Congress. I want to direct your attention to the MAGA types in particular, the dim bulbs who believe they toss out pearls of wisdom when in reality they spew bullsh**.

Yet the media glom onto their sanctimonious drivel. We are treated on the nightly news and throughout the day on cable news networks to the spewing of the likes of those who — pardon the candor — cannot find their rear ends with both hands.

Yet there they are. Calling attention to themselves, as if they are important enough to have their words actually matter. Well … they don’t matter. Yet we hear from loudmouth numbskulls such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and any other right-wing dipsh** with an opinion. As the saying goes: Opinions are like a**holes … everyone has ’em.

I continue to long for the day when we can return to a political culture that mandated that congressional newbies keep their thought to themselves and step aside while the wise men and women of both congressional chambers speak for their respective bodies.

There used to be a saying that a member of Congress had to serve at least two terms in the House and half a term in Senate before being allowed to make speeches from the floor.

Given the intelligence level of many of the MAGA blowhards, that notion is sounding more appealing all the time. Perhaps by the time they get some actual political seasoning they might wise up to the way government is supposed to work.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Mr. Speaker

Kevin McCarthy, the newly installed speaker of the U.S. House, no doubt is feeling smug this morning as he begins his first week in Congress’s most powerful political office.

I mean, the Republican congressman was able to take the gavel after 15 votes among his colleagues in the House. He set a record for the number of tries he needed to cross the finish line. Is this the beginning of a new era in Congress? I doubt it … seriously!

Therefore, I feel compelled to warn the speaker against getting too far ahead of himself as he seeks to organize the legislative chamber. He gave away a lot — too much, in my view — to the right-wing radical wing of the Republican Party House conference to attain the office he coveted.

The most startling concession allows just one House member to call for a vote to remove the speaker. What, then, could happen if McCarthy pisses off one of the House members who held out until the last minute to approve his nomination? Could they call for a vote within the House to boot him?

Moreover, it should be obvious to Speaker McCarthy that voters sent a clear message to Congress in the November 2022 midterm election: They want Congress to govern, not obstruct; voters aren’t interested in these “investigations” into Hunter Biden’s laptop. Maybe most GOPers have such an interest, but they don’t comprise the bulk of the voting population.

I couldn’t help but think of the classic definition of insanity as McCarthy kept bringing the speakership up for a vote time and again. It is that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

To be fair, Speaker McCarthy eventually got the “different result” he sought … but it was on the 15th try.

Wow! What a sh** show!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

It’s not just Biden’s ‘crisis’

President Biden clearly needs to face what is a crisis on our southern border, with illegal immigrants continuing to seek asylum into the Land of Opportunity, Freedom and Liberty.

However … to suggest that this is a crisis that Biden created is to ignore what I believe is quite obvious.

Which is that the crisis predates this president by several administrations. Whether they were led by Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush or Ronald Reagan — presidents of both parties — this nation’s administrations have dealt with issues along the southern border.

Joe Biden came today to South Texas to get a look at what is happening there. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott greeted him, shook hands, exchanged some conservation and then handed Biden a letter. The letter says this crisis is of President Biden’s making.

No! It is not! It is a situation that has been festering for as long as I can remember. Here again, Abbott referred to Biden’s alleged desire to support “open borders.” Someone has to show me where the president has declared any desire for an open border. If he said something to that effect, I am willing to consider taking back everything I have said in support of the president.

The demagogues are out in force.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Life teaches stern lessons

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To be candid, my bride and I have not envisioned ourselves sitting on easy chairs at the beach, watching the tide roll in and out as we march on through our retired life.

Our plan always has been to travel hither and yon. We sold our RV recently, but our travel plans remain intact.

But … first things first.

We have a health issue to battle and to whip. You see, my bride was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her brain. The doctor removed most of it. The plan now is to blast the rest of it out of there through an aggressive treatment of radiation and chemotherapy. The docs are clear about the intent of this therapy: to shrink what’s left of the tumor … with the aim of eliminating it altogether!

My optimism is high. More importantly, so is hers. This challenge has taught us many valuable lessons. We are receiving love from family and friends. It’s even coming from people we don’t know well. The lesson has been to accept it with open arms and hearts.

The next lesson has been that no matter how smoothly your journey through life has been, one should always expect to encounter the occasional shock to one’s system. My wife’s shock arrived the day after Christmas when she received the diagnosis of a mass in her brain.

The journey, though, continues along a different path than what we had envisioned. The destination remains the same and for that I will stay focused. More importantly, so will my bride.

Our blessings mount even as we embark on the effort to face down this challenge. They provide us with optimism looking ahead. They are coming in the form of the love that is pouring forth. I can state with absolute certainty that the love will sustain us.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Can they work together?

Hakeen Jefferies says he and Kevin McCarthy can work together when it matters. Count me as a skeptic … for the time being at least.

Jefferies is the newly minted U.S. House Democratic leader is the equally newly minted speaker of the House. Oh … McCarthy also is a Republican who had to fight through 15 floor-vote ballots before eking out enough support to get the speaker’s gavel.

Jefferies says he and McCarthy get along just fine, that they can “agree to disagree without being disagreeable.” Indeed, McCarthy said some pretty angry things about former speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in turn fired some nastiness at McCarthy.

Jefferies and McCarthy need to work together to craft legislation that President Biden can agree to sign into law. I fear that the task might be hampered by the MAGA crowd within the GOP House caucus that is intent on impeaching everyone who carries the title of Democrat.

Well, I will hold out a sliver of hope that the party leaders can forge a working relationship that puts country ahead of partisan concerns.

Many of us are watching you, gentleman.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com