Monthly Archives: April 2023

national news

Recalling stirring oration

A lot of Americans — too many of them, perhaps — are fixated on the upcoming charges awaiting the 45th POTUS, the moron who brought us the memorable boast that “I, alone can fix” what ails the country.

A dear friend reminded us today on a social media post about another speech delivered shortly before a gunman assassinated the man who delivered it.

He said, in part, in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stirred a nation with such rhetoric. I prefer to honor this great man’s memory as I venture through my day.
science news

Ready for launch?

Americans of a certain age — which is a sort of code for “old folks” like me — recall a time when we waited with bated breath for space ships to launch from Florida en route to outer space.

It’s going to happen again, I believe. NASA has revealed the names of the crew to fly aboard the Artemis space ship in 2024. Its destination? The moon!

The Artemis II team will be made up of three Americans — Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman — and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

OK, it’s going to be a fly-by. A practice run preparing the space agency to land astronauts later on the moon’s surface as part of its preparation for eventually sending men and women to Mars.

I intend to await the launch when it occurs. I likely will awaken early that morning and watch on TV as NASA counts down prior to the ship firing and sailing away on its mission to the moon. For me, it’s going to be like the old days during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Mom and I would wait endlessly for the launches. It was the highest drama possible.

The last Apollo mission flew in 1975. It was an Earth-orbit flight that hooked up with a Soviet space ship. The most recent moon landing occurred in 1972. Then NASA canceled the moon-landing program, citing lack of money and a reported lack of interest among Americans.

I do hope the interest returns to the public that needs an event such as this to cheer. I intend to be one of the cheerleaders.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Complaints are outrageous!

When I hear the likes of the MAGA cult and other right-wing fanatics denigrate the criminal justice system because it delivers decisions they dislike … it fills me with rage.

The denigration is in full swing in the wake of Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, which is about to level several criminal charges against the ex-president related to his paying an adult film star hush money to keep quiet about a fling the two of them allegedly had in 2006.

The DA in that case, Alvin Bragg, is a competent lawyer. He seated a duly constituted grand jury of ordinary folks to examine the evidence. The grand jury delivered its decision to indict Trump. Yet the former POTUS and his minions are claiming the DA and the grand jury are corrupt. They are politicizing this case.

I don’t believe any of that crap, any more than I believe the rubbish that the 2020 election was stolen, or that the Justice Department is “weaponizing” evidence just to get Trump.

I am a believer in the system. It is working as it should. Trump is likely to pay the price for misdeeds and possibly for criminal activity.

Is anyone on the take? I do not believe it … for an instant!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Predictable response

Politicians and other observers across the spectrum are reacting to Donald Trump’s indictment in totally predictable fashion.

The conservative media call the grand jury’s indictment of the 45th POTUS as a witch hunt, a “political persecution” and a case that won’t hold up. Other media suggest that Trump faces the prospect of actual prison time if a trial jury convicts him, presuming it goes to trial.

I don’t know what to think. I do believe that the hush money payment of 130 grand to Stormy Daniels is small potatoes compared to what is likely to come from other jurisdictions. The Fulton County grand jury might indict Trump on seeking to overturn an election result; the Justice Department is examining whether Trump sought to overthrow the government and obstructed justice by refusing to turn over classified documents he took on his way out of the White House.

The Manhattan indictment, though, is a big deal in this regard: It’s the first time in history that a former POTUS is accused of committing a crime.

This is going to be loads of fun to watch.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

It’s a secular document!

Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t know the Constitution she took an oath to defend and protect, as she exhibited tonight in a “60 Minutes” interview.

The fire-breathing Republican congresswoman from northwest Georgia said the United States needs to become a “Christian nation,” which prompted the interviewer, Lesley Stahl, to remind her that the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion.

Greene answered that the founders sought “spiritual guidance” when the drafted the nation’s governing document.

OK. Yes. They did. However …

The document they produced doesn’t make a single reference to Christianity, or to Jesus Christ or the New Testament. What’s more, Article VI in the Constitution says specifically that there shall be “no religious test” required of anyone seeking public office in the United States of America.

What part of “secular government” does this idiot not get?

I just had to weigh in against this moronic testimony from a second-term member of Congress who is earning her spurs by spouting dangerous demagoguery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Live it to the fullest

PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the lessons I have gleaned from my journey out west in the wake of my bride’s passing from cancer has been something I’ve known all along.

However, it is being driven home to me as a stark reality. It is to live one’s life fully and to never, ever take for granted that you’ve got a lot of time left on this Earth.

Kathy Anne likely didn’t see the diagnosis coming when she received it on Dec. 26. We had hoped to buy her some time, that the treatment she was scheduled to receive could “control” the lesion sufficiently to give her a good quality of life.

It didn’t work out.

She was gone in six weeks. It was a stunning outcome to an event I didn’t believe was probable. Yes, it was possible and I suppose I knew it could end the way it did. I just didn’t expect it.

The journey through the Great American West will continue in due course after I finish visiting friends and family in and near the city of my birth. I believe, though, that I have reached one undeniable conclusion at the midway point of this journey.

It is that I am going to relish the sunrise every single morning I am able to do so. Every day will be an adventure. I might not verbalize it when I awake, but I will certainly realize it as each day unfolds.

That’s not a bad way to go as I keep taking these baby steps toward the light.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Mixed feelings about POTUS 45’s campaign

I remain fairly convinced that the 45th president of the U.S. isn’t going to stay in the race for the White House in 2024.

It doesn’t bother me in the least that he would drop out to concentrate on fighting the bucketloads of legal trouble standing before him.

Nor does it bother me were he to stay in. Why? Because the moron remains a highly beatable Republican nominee for POTUS if the GOP faithful is stupid enough to nominate him in 2024.

The first indictment from the Manhattan grand jury appears to be just the first of several such actions awaiting the ex-POTUS. The more serious charges — tampering with election results, inciting the insurrection on 1/6 and squirreling away classified documents — all are grounds for criminal prosecution … in my humble view.

Thus, it seems to me that it is unlikely that even this idiot can continue to campaign for the White House.

If he does, big fu***** deal!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Biden shows needed reticence

Joe Biden is good enough of a politician and a lawyer to understand that when a political foe is being indicted for crimes that it is best to just keep his mouth shut.

It was reporters’ efforts to get the president to comment on Donald Trump’s indictment on multiple counts relating to the hush money payment he made to an adult film star that prompted Biden to declare that he won’t speak about Biden’s legal difficulty.

Why should he speak out? Indeed, no lawyer in America would ever counsel an active politician to weigh in on something such as Trump’s indictment.

You see, President Biden is both. An active pol and a man with a decent legal education.

Moreover, you might be willing to bet your last nickel that the president has instructed every member of the Cabinet, the White House staff and even the foreign service officials on duty to dummy up. Don’t talk to reporters about any of this! Got it? Good!

One of the axioms in politics is that when your adversaries are in trouble, it is best to just let ’em stew in their own sauce. Donald Trump’s difficulties are just beginning.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Portland, you have a problem

1 Comment

PORTLAND, Ore. — Allow me this paraphrasing of the comment astronaut Jim Lovell relayed to Earth when his moon ship was damaged in space: Portland, you appear to have a problem.

I say “appear” because appearances are all I have at this moment.

Driving through Portland this afternoon along Interstate 5, I noticed a number of tent clusters. I have heard, along with other Americans, about the homeless problem in my hometown. Today I saw evidence of what I have heard.

The clusters of tents also contain considerable amounts of litter, trash, debris. Quite unsightly? Yes! It assuredly is hard to look at.

Here’s my question: What is the city doing to alleviate this problem?

No community anywhere wants to be known as a haven of sorts for homeless citizens. Yet that is what I believe is occurring in this lovely city of about 650,000 residents living in a greater metropolitan area of 2.5 million folks. Portland has become a great city. It is attractive. It has a vibrant river running through it, which then empties into one of the world’s great rivers on the city’s northern boundary. It has a downtown district that has become — even with the spate of violence seen here in recent times — the envy of other cities.

But it does have this homeless population that requires safe housing in which to live.

Is the city up to the challenge it faces? Man, I hope so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Belief in the system

I happen to be a staunch and faithful believer in the U.S. criminal justice system, the one that relies on everyday folks such as you and me to deliver justice in the form they believe fits.

With that, it is incumbent on me to forgo any bitching about a system that could produce a verdict in a high-profile case involving a former POTUS who has just been indicted on unspecified charges involving a hush money payment he made to a woman with whom he allegedly had a one-night tumble in 2006.

I’ll tell you where I am going with this. Even though I want a criminal trial jury to convict Donald Trump of whatever he is being charged, I need to stipulate that I must accept an acquittal if that is what the jury decides in due course. I won’t like the verdict, but in the interest in fealty to my faith in the system, I need to accept it.

There is no way to predict what a trial jury would decide, even if it goes to trial. I am just preparing myself for the worst outcome, but you won’t see me marching in the streets to protest whatever a jury would decide.

Unlike the defendant in this case, I believe in the integrity of the system, in the Manhattan, N.Y., district attorney who presented the evidence to the grand jury and in the grand jurors who acted in good faith to deliver their indictment.

The ex-president won’t ever acknowledge that the system worked the way it is designed to work. Fine. Let him bitch.

I won’t stoop to his level of cynical ignorance.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com